W.P. Carey Inc. $WPC Shares Purchased by Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 1.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 252,264 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,125 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned 0.12% of W.P. Carey worth $15,921,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WPC. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc boosted its holdings in W.P. Carey by 16.9% during the fourth quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 156,091 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $8,504,000 after buying an additional 22,516 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in W.P. Carey by 130.2% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 27,585 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,503,000 after buying an additional 15,600 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in W.P. Carey by 514.7% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 538,933 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $29,361,000 after purchasing an additional 451,262 shares in the last quarter. Mubadala Investment Co PJSC purchased a new position in W.P. Carey during the fourth quarter valued at $2,364,000. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp lifted its holdings in W.P. Carey by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 9,130 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $497,000 after purchasing an additional 1,548 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WPC. Barclays increased their target price on shares of W.P. Carey from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of W.P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of W.P. Carey from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of W.P. Carey from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $66.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Finally, BNP Paribas set a $66.00 price target on shares of W.P. Carey and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $66.33.

W.P. Carey Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of NYSE:WPC opened at $67.76 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $64.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $62.92. The company has a market capitalization of $14.84 billion, a PE ratio of 44.58, a P/E/G ratio of 9.86 and a beta of 0.82. W.P. Carey Inc. has a twelve month low of $52.91 and a twelve month high of $68.28. The company has a current ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 0.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.28 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $430.78 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $420.99 million. W.P. Carey had a net margin of 20.42% and a return on equity of 4.00%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.17 EPS. W.P. Carey has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.870-4.950 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that W.P. Carey Inc. will post 4.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th were paid a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 30th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.3%. This is an increase from W.P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. W.P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio is presently 236.84%.

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.