Earnings

W. P. Carey Raises 2026 AFFO Outlook to $5.23–$5.29

The Tip Desk · November 8, 2026 · 4 min read

The net lease REIT lifted full-year AFFO guidance to $5.23–$5.29 a share after $1.33 of third-quarter AFFO, implying 5.8% growth at the midpoint.

W. P. Carey Inc. (WPC), a net lease real estate investment trust, raised and narrowed its 2026 AFFO per diluted share guidance to $5.23 to $5.29 from $5.19 to $5.27, implying 5.8% year-over-year growth at the midpoint versus 5.2% at the prior midpoint.

The company said the update primarily reflected a more favorable outlook for potential rent loss and lower projected tax expense, partly offset by one-time rent abatements expected mainly in the fourth quarter associated with releasing activity.

For the third quarter ended September 30, 2026, AFFO was $308.2 million, or $1.33 a share, up 6.4% from $1.25 a share a year earlier. The company attributed the increase primarily to accretive net investment activity and rent escalations, partly offset by the settlement of forward equity.

Revenues, including reimbursable costs, totaled $468.3 million, up 8.6% from $431.3 million a year earlier. Lease revenues were $422.5 million, which the company said increased due primarily to net investment activity. Operating property revenues were $12.2 million after sales of 63 self-storage properties in 2025 and 11 in the 2026 first quarter.

Net income attributable to W. P. Carey was $141.0 million, unchanged from a year earlier. Diluted earnings were $0.61 a share. The company said a lower gain on sale of real estate was substantially offset by the accretive impact of net investment activity and lower impairment charges.

Chief Executive Officer Jason Fox said the company had executed at a high level over the first nine months, with investment activity near record levels, strong portfolio performance and best-in-class rent growth supporting an expectation that AFFO per share growth will approach 6% this year. He said sharply higher interest rates have added some uncertainty to the transaction market, but that the company is confident full-year investment volume will remain well within its guidance range, and that it is raising the bottom end of that range and continues to see a path to the top half.

The company raised the low end of its full-year investment-volume assumption by $100 million, narrowing the range to $1.8 billion to $2.1 billion from $1.7 billion to $2.1 billion. Disposition-volume guidance was narrowed to $350 million to $450 million from $350 million to $550 million.

Year to date, the company completed investments totaling $1.6 billion, including $181.9 million during the third quarter and $143.2 million subsequent to quarter end. Third-quarter investment volume slowed from $706.5 million in the second quarter. Active capital investments and commitments of $95.2 million are scheduled to be completed in the 2026 fourth quarter.

During the first nine months of 2026, the company disposed of 33 properties for gross proceeds totaling $273.2 million, including five properties in the third quarter for $27.0 million. Contractual same-store rent growth was 2.6% year over year on a constant currency basis as of September 30, unchanged from the second-quarter rate. The net lease portfolio consisted of 1,755 properties, 189 million square feet leased to 383 tenants, a 12.0-year weighted-average lease term and 98.6% occupancy.

On September 18, the board increased the quarterly cash dividend to $0.950 a share, equivalent to an annualized rate of $3.80, a 4.4% increase compared with the 2025 third quarter. The dividend was paid on October 15.

During the third quarter the company settled a portion of outstanding forward sale agreements, issuing 2,301,613 shares for net proceeds of approximately $150 million. About $538 million of equity subject to forward sale agreements remained available for settlement at quarter end. It issued $350 million of 5.200% Senior Unsecured Notes due 2036 and used the proceeds to prepay $350 million of 4.250% notes due October 2026. Total liquidity was $2.6 billion, including $1.9 billion of available capacity under the Senior Unsecured Credit Facility.

Fox said the company is encouraged by repricing it is starting to see and that, if that trend continues, it would expect increasingly attractive opportunities to put the substantial capital it has raised to work.

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