W.P. Carey Inc. $WPC Stock: Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Decreases Position

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lowered its position in W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 8.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 713,703 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 61,907 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in W.P. Carey were worth $46,127,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its stake in W.P. Carey by 22.1% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 153,462 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,429,000 after buying an additional 27,734 shares in the last quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new stake in W.P. Carey during the 2nd quarter valued at $41,568,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC purchased a new position in W.P. Carey during the second quarter worth $1,403,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new position in W.P. Carey during the second quarter worth $8,112,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in W.P. Carey by 2.4% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,365,724 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $92,815,000 after buying an additional 31,476 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on WPC shares. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded W.P. Carey from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $73.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of W.P. Carey in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $73.00 target price for the company. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of W.P. Carey from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of W.P. Carey from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Evercore set a $75.00 price target on shares of W.P. Carey in a research note on Monday, September 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $76.79.

W.P. Carey Stock Down 0.4%

WPC stock opened at $65.04 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.43, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a current ratio of 0.21. W.P. Carey Inc. has a one year low of $62.19 and a one year high of $77.22. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $65.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $70.72.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.70 by ($0.09). W.P. Carey had a net margin of 35.60% and a return on equity of 7.67%. The business had revenue of $468.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $457.57 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.25 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that W.P. Carey Inc. will post 5.07 EPS for the current year.

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 30th were given a $0.95 dividend. This is an increase from W.P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.94. This represents a $3.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 30th. W.P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 131.03%.

W.P. Carey Company Profile

W.P. Carey Inc is a real estate investment trust that owns and manages commercial properties leased to businesses under long-term net leases. Under these arrangements, tenants typically pay property expenses such as taxes, insurance and maintenance in addition to rent.

The company’s portfolio focuses primarily on industrial and warehouse properties, along with retail and self-storage facilities. Its properties serve tenants in the United States and Europe. In 2023, W.P. Carey separated its office properties into a new, publicly traded company as part of a shift toward its other property types.

Founded in 1973 by William Polk Carey, the company converted to a REIT in 2012.