Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Increases Holdings in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 64.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 131,476 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 51,320 shares during the quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank’s holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $8,521,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC raised its position in W. P. Carey by 17.9% in the fourth quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 3,296 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $214,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its position in W. P. Carey by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 762,912 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $49,444,000 after purchasing an additional 12,601 shares during the period. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in W. P. Carey in the fourth quarter valued at $1,067,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in W. P. Carey in the fourth quarter valued at $3,979,000. Finally, Round Rock Advisors LLC raised its position in W. P. Carey by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Round Rock Advisors LLC now owns 4,814 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $312,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Barclays assumed coverage on W. P. Carey in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $40.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com started coverage on W. P. Carey in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on W. P. Carey from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Raymond James cut W. P. Carey from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on 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. Two 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 data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.36.

W. P. Carey Trading Up 2.9 %

WPC opened at $56.21 on Friday. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 12 month low of $51.36 and a 12 month high of $74.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.03, a PEG ratio of 0.43 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $56.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.72.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $410.38 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $413.04 million. W. P. Carey had a return on equity of 7.78% and a net margin of 40.68%. W. P. Carey’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.29 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were issued a dividend of $0.865 per share. This represents a $3.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.16%. This is an increase from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. W. P. Carey’s payout ratio is 104.85%.

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.