Retirement Systems of Alabama Increases Stock Position in W.P. Carey Inc. $WPC

Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its stake in W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 267,639 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 1,273 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in W.P. Carey were worth $16,695,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in W.P. Carey by 10.9% in the second quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 11,966 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $746,000 after acquiring an additional 1,175 shares in the last quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors raised its holdings in W.P. Carey by 1.4% in the second quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 35,945 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,242,000 after acquiring an additional 504 shares in the last quarter. Motco raised its holdings in W.P. Carey by 6.3% in the second quarter. Motco now owns 3,139 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $201,000 after acquiring an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. Vision Financial Markets LLC acquired a new stake in W.P. Carey in the second quarter valued at $112,000. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its position in shares of W.P. Carey by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 33,255 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,074,000 after acquiring an additional 1,261 shares in the last quarter. 73.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

W.P. Carey Trading Up 1.2%

W.P. Carey stock opened at $66.03 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $67.46 and its 200-day moving average is $64.48. The company has a market cap of $14.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.02, a PEG ratio of 9.57 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.19 and a current ratio of 0.25. W.P. Carey Inc. has a 1 year low of $52.91 and a 1 year high of $69.79.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by $0.02. W.P. Carey had a net margin of 21.75% and a return on equity of 4.40%. The business had revenue of $431.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $424.44 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.18 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. W.P. Carey has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.930-4.990 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that W.P. Carey Inc. will post 4.87 earnings per share for the current year.

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 30th were issued a $0.91 dividend. This is a boost from W.P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.5%. W.P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio is 220.61%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on WPC. UBS Group lifted their target price on W.P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Barclays lifted their target price on W.P. Carey from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of W.P. Carey from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of W.P. Carey from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of W.P. Carey from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $68.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $67.89.

About W.P. Carey

W. P. Carey ranks among the largest net lease REITs with a well-diversified portfolio of high-quality, operationally critical commercial real estate, which includes 1,424 net lease properties covering approximately 173 million square feet and a portfolio of 89 self-storage operating properties as of December 31, 2023.