Blue Trust Inc. Acquires 613 Shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 64.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,559 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 613 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $97,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,971,062 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,748,007,000 after buying an additional 187,022 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 22.2% in the second 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 buying an additional 588,636 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 6.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,152,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $173,570,000 after buying an additional 204,064 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 0.3% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,524,490 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $138,973,000 after buying an additional 7,549 shares during the period. Finally, PGGM Investments raised its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 18.5% in the second quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 2,498,975 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $137,569,000 after buying an additional 389,853 shares during the period. 73.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at W. P. Carey

In other news, Director Mark A. Alexander acquired 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $55.87 per share, for a total transaction of $195,545.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 38,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,129,987.88. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 1.08% of the company’s stock.

W. P. Carey Price Performance

W. P. Carey stock opened at $56.72 on Wednesday. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 52 week low of $51.60 and a 52 week high of $67.40. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.19. The company has a quick ratio of 1.93, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The stock has a market cap of $12.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.57, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.94.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by ($0.47). W. P. Carey had a return on equity of 6.50% and a net margin of 34.83%. The firm had revenue of $389.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $381.39 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.36 earnings per share. W. P. Carey’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a $0.875 dividend. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio is presently 133.08%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on W. P. Carey from $70.00 to $68.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Barclays boosted their price objective on W. P. Carey from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective (up from $62.00) on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on W. P. Carey from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.25.

W. P. Carey 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.