W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the eleven ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have issued a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $100.60.

WPC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. BNP Paribas Exane raised W.P. Carey from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $66.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on W.P. Carey from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on W.P. Carey from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on W.P. Carey from $410.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Barclays set a $61.00 price objective on W.P. Carey and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st.

W.P. Carey Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of WPC stock opened at $63.00 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $62.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.99. W.P. Carey has a 12-month low of $52.91 and a 12-month high of $66.10. The firm has a market cap of $13.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.04 and a beta of 0.78.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.20 by ($0.03). W.P. Carey had a return on equity of 5.02% and a net margin of 26.66%. The firm had revenue of $407.44 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $412.99 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.14 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that W.P. Carey will post 4.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.71%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. This is an increase from W.P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. W.P. Carey’s payout ratio is currently 185.57%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. IAG Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in W.P. Carey by 7.0% during the 1st quarter. IAG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,495 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $157,000 after acquiring an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. boosted its position in W.P. Carey by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. now owns 4,145 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $262,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. DF Dent & Co. Inc. boosted its position in W.P. Carey by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. DF Dent & Co. Inc. now owns 5,464 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $298,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC boosted its position in W.P. Carey by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 6,877 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $434,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its position in W.P. Carey by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 44,381 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,418,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% 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.