Diversified Trust Co Takes $534,000 Position in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Diversified Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 9,799 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $534,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WPC. Wedbush Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of W. P. Carey during the 2nd quarter valued at about $209,000. Choreo LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W. P. Carey during the second quarter valued at approximately $418,000. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 6.8% during the second quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 112,189 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,176,000 after purchasing an additional 7,104 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 6.0% in the second quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 767,971 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $42,277,000 after purchasing an additional 43,264 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in W. P. Carey by 8.1% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 63,802 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,512,000 after purchasing an additional 4,766 shares in the last quarter. 73.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on WPC. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $63.00 price target (up previously from $62.00) on shares of W. P. Carey in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. UBS Group dropped their price objective on W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 14th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Friday. Finally, Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $59.00 price target (up previously from $56.00) on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, W. P. Carey has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.57.

W. P. Carey Stock Performance

Shares of WPC opened at $53.93 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 1.00. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 12-month low of $53.09 and a 12-month high of $67.40. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $55.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $57.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.80 billion, a PE ratio of 21.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.97.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last posted its quarterly 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 return on equity of 6.45% and a net margin of 35.12%. The business had revenue of $394.78 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $377.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.32 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.88 per share. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.53%. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio is presently 138.58%.

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.