W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the nine brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $63.25.

WPC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group increased their target price on W. P. Carey from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $63.00 price target (up previously from $62.00) on shares of W. P. Carey in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Evercore ISI upped their price target on W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Barclays upped their price target on W. P. Carey from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 1st.

W. P. Carey Stock Down 1.1 %

WPC stock opened at $55.12 on Tuesday. W. P. Carey has a fifty-two week low of $53.01 and a fifty-two week high of $67.40. The business’s 50-day moving average is $60.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 1.93 and a current ratio of 1.00. The company has a market cap of $12.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.94.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by ($0.62). W. P. Carey had a net margin of 35.12% and a return on equity of 6.45%. The firm had revenue of $394.78 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $377.43 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.32 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that W. P. Carey will post 4.52 earnings per share for the current year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $0.875 per share. This represents a $3.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 137.80%.

Insider Buying and Selling at W. P. Carey

In other news, Director Mark A. Alexander purchased 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $55.87 per share, for a total transaction of $195,545.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 38,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,129,987.88. This represents a 0.00 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.08% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On W. P. Carey

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WPC. Equity Investment Corp bought a new stake in shares of W. P. Carey in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $59,802,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 22.2% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,240,705 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $178,401,000 after purchasing an additional 588,636 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 185.7% in the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 684,355 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $37,631,000 after purchasing an additional 444,785 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 6,145.1% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 407,304 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $25,375,000 after purchasing an additional 400,782 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PGGM Investments lifted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 18.5% in the 2nd quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 2,498,975 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $137,569,000 after purchasing an additional 389,853 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

W. P. Carey Company Profile

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.