Forget Realty Income, W.P. Carey Is a Better REIT Stock

Realty Income (NYSE: O) is a bellwether net-lease real estate investment trust (REIT), and it looks like it's relatively cheap today. However, if you are in the market for a net-lease REIT, you should also take a close look at W.P. Carey (NYSE: WPC).

It's a little different from Realty Income, and, frankly, most of its other net-lease peers. But those differences are exactly why it's a better option.

Realty Income is a giant net-lease real estate investment trust, with a portfolio of roughly 6,500 properties. W.P. Carey is much smaller, with a portfolio of just 1,200 or so properties. However, it's still a large player in the net-lease space, with enough assets to give it the scale it needs to compete with even industry giants like Realty Income. In fact, Carey's smaller portfolio may actually provide it an advantage here, because smaller transactions can still be meaningful to its top and bottom lines. Realty Income, on the other hand, needs pretty big deals to move the needle.