Before You Buy W. P. Carey: Here's a REIT Stock I'd Buy First
After building an impressive track record of regular dividend growth, W. P. Carey (NYSE: WPC) has chosen to reset its business in a major way. Although the company focused on the spinoff of office properties when it announced the big overhaul, passive income investors paid more attention to an anticipated dividend cut. W. P. Carey's story has changed and that makes net lease peer Realty Income (NYSE: O) a better choice for most income investors.
Up until now, real estate investment trust (REIT) W. P. Carey has increased its dividend every year since its 1998 initial public offering. It increased it during the 2000 dot-com crash, the Great Recession, and the coronavirus pandemic bear market. Management had a slide dedicated to its dividend consistency in its investor presentation, specifically stating that it has a "conservative and stable payout ratio."
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