Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC decreased its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 7.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,427,329 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 121,616 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $92,505,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in W. P. Carey by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 7,204 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $467,000 after purchasing an additional 602 shares in the last quarter. Fortitude Advisory Group L.L.C. purchased a new stake in W. P. Carey during the 4th quarter valued at about $208,000. New York Life Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in W. P. Carey during the 4th quarter valued at about $234,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in W. P. Carey by 15.0% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 80,786 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,236,000 after purchasing an additional 10,561 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Naviter Wealth LLC grew its stake in W. P. Carey by 12.8% during the 4th quarter. Naviter Wealth LLC now owns 15,425 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,013,000 after purchasing an additional 1,752 shares during the last quarter. 73.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Scotiabank lowered their target price on W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Barclays initiated coverage on W. P. Carey in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $40.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on W. P. Carey from $66.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Raymond James cut W. P. Carey from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on W. P. Carey from $65.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.18.

W. P. Carey Stock Performance

Shares of WPC traded up $0.76 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $56.68. 1,392,501 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,360,679. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $55.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $58.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.62. W. P. Carey Inc. has a twelve month low of $51.36 and a twelve month high of $73.60. The company has a market capitalization of $12.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.51, a PEG ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.86.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $410.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $413.04 million. W. P. Carey had a return on equity of 6.41% and a net margin of 33.65%. The business’s revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.29 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a $0.865 dividend. This represents a $3.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. W. P. Carey’s payout ratio is 131.56%.

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.