W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Receives Average Recommendation of “Reduce” from Brokerages

Shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) have been given a consensus rating of “Reduce” by the eleven ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have issued a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $63.36.

A number of research analysts have issued reports on WPC shares. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 12th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $40.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $66.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Raymond James cut shares of W. P. Carey from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th.

W. P. Carey Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of W. P. Carey stock opened at $53.31 on Friday. W. P. Carey has a 12-month low of $51.36 and a 12-month high of $74.66. The company has a current ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The stock has a market cap of $11.67 billion, a PE ratio of 16.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a 50-day moving average of $56.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.72.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.14. W. P. Carey had a net margin of 40.68% and a return on equity of 7.78%. The company had revenue of $410.38 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $413.04 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.29 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that W. P. Carey will post 4.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a dividend of $0.865 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $3.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.49%. This is a positive change from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 104.85%.

Institutional Trading of W. P. Carey

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in W. P. Carey by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,784,040 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,995,114,000 after acquiring an additional 657,188 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 15,373,667 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,190,691,000 after purchasing an additional 368,425 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 91.9% in the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 11,290,841 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $731,800,000 after purchasing an additional 5,407,289 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,228,412 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $802,831,000 after purchasing an additional 208,561 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 46.1% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,558,610 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $507,966,000 after purchasing an additional 2,068,458 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

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.