W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.88 Per Share

W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 12th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.88 per share by the real estate investment trust on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.46%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88.

W. P. Carey has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 0.9% per year over the last three years. W. P. Carey has a dividend payout ratio of 133.3% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities research analysts expect W. P. Carey to earn $4.66 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.52 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 75.5%.

W. P. Carey Price Performance

W. P. Carey stock opened at $54.51 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $56.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.90. The firm has a market cap of $11.93 billion, a PE ratio of 21.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. W. P. Carey has a 52-week low of $53.09 and a 52-week high of $67.40.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $394.78 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $377.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.32 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that W. P. Carey will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WPC. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $59.00 price objective (up from $56.00) on shares of W. P. Carey in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $63.00 target price (up previously from $62.00) on shares of W. P. Carey in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of W. P. Carey in a report on Monday, December 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.25.

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.