California Public Employees Retirement System Increases Stock Position in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

California Public Employees Retirement System increased its position in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 4.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,164,290 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 51,682 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $75,458,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in W. P. Carey by 44.7% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 3,640,966 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $235,971,000 after acquiring an additional 1,124,010 shares during the last quarter. Demars Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in W. P. Carey by 14.0% during the 3rd quarter. Demars Financial Group LLC now owns 76,214 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,122,000 after acquiring an additional 9,334 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. bought a new position in W. P. Carey during the 3rd quarter valued at $613,000. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its stake in W. P. Carey by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 58,795 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,811,000 after acquiring an additional 439 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in W. P. Carey by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 219,159 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $11,852,000 after acquiring an additional 10,562 shares during the last quarter. 73.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

W. P. Carey Trading Up 0.2 %

W. P. Carey stock opened at $56.43 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $56.05 and its 200-day moving average is $58.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.62. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 1 year low of $51.36 and a 1 year high of $74.66. The company has a market cap of $12.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.10, a PEG ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 0.86.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $410.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $413.04 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.29 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.57 earnings per share for the current year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were issued a $0.865 dividend. This represents a $3.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.13%. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 104.85%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on WPC. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $66.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 12th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Raymond James downgraded shares of W. P. Carey from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, Barclays started coverage on shares of W. P. Carey in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $40.00 price target on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.36.

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.