Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Purchases 99,413 Shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 4.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,436,469 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 99,413 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned about 1.11% of W. P. Carey worth $157,908,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Apollon Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in W. P. Carey by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 17,504 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,134,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 17,954 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,164,000 after buying an additional 1,433 shares during the last quarter. Sheets Smith Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Sheets Smith Wealth Management now owns 84,032 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,446,000 after acquiring an additional 475 shares during the last quarter. Kerntke Otto McGlone Wealth Management Group increased its holdings in W. P. Carey by 20.0% in the 4th quarter. Kerntke Otto McGlone Wealth Management Group now owns 7,922 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $513,000 after purchasing an additional 1,318 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal Fund Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 8.8% during the fourth quarter. Royal Fund Management LLC now owns 13,085 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $848,000 after purchasing an additional 1,057 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report 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 on the stock. Raymond James cut W. P. Carey from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on W. P. Carey from $65.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.18.

W. P. Carey Stock Performance

NYSE WPC opened at $57.86 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $56.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $58.94. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 1 year low of $51.36 and a 1 year high of $73.38. The firm has a market cap of $12.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.00, a PEG ratio of 0.45 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 the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $410.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $413.04 million. W. P. Carey had a net margin of 33.65% and a return on equity of 6.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.29 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a dividend of $0.865 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This is a positive change from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $3.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.98%. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 131.56%.

About W. P. Carey

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.