W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.88 Per Share

W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, September 19th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of 0.875 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $3.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This is a positive change from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87.

W. P. Carey has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 0.9% per year over the last three years. W. P. Carey has a dividend payout ratio of 157.0% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect W. P. Carey to earn $4.63 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.50 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 75.6%.

W. P. Carey Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WPC opened at $62.74 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $57.60. W. P. Carey has a 1-year low of $51.36 and a 1-year high of $67.40. The firm has a market cap of $13.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.12 by ($0.47). The business had revenue of $389.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $381.39 million. W. P. Carey had a return on equity of 6.50% and a net margin of 34.83%. W. P. Carey’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.36 EPS. Analysts anticipate that W. P. Carey will post 4.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WPC has been the subject of several analyst reports. UBS Group raised their target price on W. P. Carey from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 26th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of 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. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $61.13.

Insider Buying and Selling at W. P. Carey

In related news, Director Mark A. Alexander bought 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The stock was bought at an average price of $55.87 per share, with a total value of $195,545.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 38,124 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,129,987.88. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.08% of the company’s stock.

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.