Analysts Set W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Price Target at $63.25

Shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) have been given an average rating of “Hold” by the nine brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $63.25.

WPC has been the subject of several research reports. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $61.00 to $60.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective (up previously from $62.00) on shares of W. P. Carey in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Evercore ISI increased 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 research report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $70.00 to $68.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 12th.

W. P. Carey Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:WPC opened at $55.34 on Tuesday. W. P. Carey has a 52 week low of $53.01 and a 52 week high of $67.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 1.93 and a current ratio of 1.00. The company has a market capitalization of $12.11 billion, a PE ratio of 21.79, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $60.44 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $58.23.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.13 by ($0.62). W. P. Carey had a net margin of 35.12% and a return on equity of 6.45%. The firm had revenue of $394.78 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $377.43 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.32 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that W. P. Carey will post 4.52 earnings per share for the current year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were given a dividend of $0.875 per share. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.32%. This is a positive change from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 137.80%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Mark A. Alexander bought 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $55.87 per share, with a total value of $195,545.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 38,124 shares in the company, valued at $2,129,987.88. This represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.08% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W. P. Carey

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WPC. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV boosted its position in W. P. Carey by 35.9% during the 3rd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 651 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 172 shares during the period. Catalytic Wealth RIA LLC lifted its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. Catalytic Wealth RIA LLC now owns 4,033 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $222,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares during the period. Kowal Investment Group LLC lifted its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kowal Investment Group LLC now owns 6,070 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $334,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the period. Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 3,626 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $226,000 after purchasing an additional 203 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Planning increased its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 64,709 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,031,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. 73.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.