W. P. Carey Rating Affirmed By Moody's, Outlook Stable

Ushering in good news for W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) , Moody's Investors Service announced that it has affirmed all the ratings of the company with a stable outlook. This included the rating affirmation of senior unsecured notes at Baa2.

Per the rating agency, this reflects W. P. Carey’s solid investment strategy that has a major focus on critical assets with long-term lease deals to high-quality tenants in both main real estate portfolio and investment management business. In fact, the company’s portfolio is well diversified in terms of geography, property and tenants. The company also has a sustained solid occupancy rate at its properties.

However, the company has a high secured debt level and modestly-sized unencumbered asset pool. Moreover, exposure to some variable fee streams from its investment management business is another major credit concern for W.P. Carey, according to the rating agency.

On the other hand, the stable outlook reflects the rating agency’s anticipation that this real estate investment trust (REIT) would continue reducing its secured debt levels, raise its unencumbered asset portfolio, while sustaining its current operating performance.

Rating affirmation reassures a company’s creditworthiness in the market as well as boosts investors’ confidence in the stock. This ensures constant accessibility to the capital required for the company’s growth.

Notably, W. P. Carey Inc. – an internally-managed net lease REIT – provides long-term sale-leaseback and build-to-suit financing solutions for companies worldwide. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and a dividend yield of 6.38%.

Investors can also consider some better-ranked stocks in the REIT industry like American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) , CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust, Inc. (NYSE:CORR) and InfraREIT, Inc. (NYSE:HIFR) , all sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

American Tower is a steady performer, having beaten the Zacks Consensus Estimate over all the trailing four quarters, with an average surprise of 6.16%. CorEnergy Infrastructure has experienced 3.9% upward revision in full-year 2016 estimates in the past two months. Also, InfraREIT has a long-term expected growth rate of 10% against the industry average of 5.8%.


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