Versor Investments LP Buys New Stake in W.P. Carey Inc. $WPC

Versor Investments LP bought a new stake in W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 9,023 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $563,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Meixler Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in W.P. Carey by 11.2% in the 2nd quarter. Meixler Investment Management Ltd. now owns 37,506 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,340,000 after buying an additional 3,765 shares in the last quarter. Presima Securities ULC lifted its stake in W.P. Carey by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Presima Securities ULC now owns 33,834 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,111,000 after buying an additional 932 shares in the last quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in W.P. Carey by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 5,779 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $360,000 after buying an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio lifted its stake in W.P. Carey by 93.1% in the 2nd quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 231,337 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $14,431,000 after buying an additional 111,529 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atria Investments Inc lifted its stake in W.P. Carey by 22.1% in the 2nd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 14,340 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $895,000 after buying an additional 2,597 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

W.P. Carey Price Performance

WPC stock opened at $65.96 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $14.45 billion, a PE ratio of 39.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.57 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a current ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 0.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $67.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $64.58. W.P. Carey Inc. has a 12-month low of $52.91 and a 12-month high of $69.79.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.23 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $431.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $424.44 million. W.P. Carey had a return on equity of 4.40% and a net margin of 21.75%.The firm’s revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.18 earnings per share. W.P. Carey has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.930-4.990 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that W.P. Carey Inc. will post 4.87 EPS for the current year.

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on WPC. UBS Group boosted their price target on W.P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 15th. Barclays increased their price target on W.P. Carey from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of W.P. Carey in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Scotiabank increased their price target on W.P. Carey from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised W.P. Carey from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $68.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target 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.