W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) Hits New 1-Year High Following Analyst Upgrade

W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)’s share price hit a new 52-week high on Thursday after Wells Fargo & Company upgraded the stock from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating. Wells Fargo & Company now has a $72.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $68.00. W.P. Carey traded as high as $68.31 and last traded at $68.27, with a volume of 310293 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $67.46.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on WPC. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of W.P. Carey from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $66.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, June 9th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of W.P. Carey from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Barclays upped their price target on shares of W.P. Carey from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of W.P. Carey from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of W.P. Carey from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, W.P. Carey currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.78.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On W.P. Carey

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Osaic Holdings Inc. lifted its stake in W.P. Carey by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 217,051 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $13,548,000 after purchasing an additional 9,706 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in W.P. Carey by 7.8% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 64,552 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,030,000 after purchasing an additional 4,668 shares during the last quarter. TT Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in W.P. Carey by 21.9% in the 2nd quarter. TT Capital Management LLC now owns 66,393 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,142,000 after purchasing an additional 11,919 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its stake in W.P. Carey by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 37,573 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,344,000 after purchasing an additional 669 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clarion Wealth Managment Partners LLC bought a new position in W.P. Carey in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,315,000. Institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

W.P. Carey Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $14.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.05, a P/E/G ratio of 9.82 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.19 and a current ratio of 0.19. The company’s 50 day moving average is $64.96 and its 200 day moving average is $62.99.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.23 by $0.05. W.P. Carey had a net margin of 20.42% and a return on equity of 4.00%. The business had revenue of $430.78 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $420.99 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.17 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. W.P. Carey has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.870-4.950 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that W.P. Carey Inc. will post 4.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.