Park Avenue Securities LLC Takes $519,000 Position in W.P. Carey Inc. $WPC

Park Avenue Securities LLC acquired a new stake in W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 8,323 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $519,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in WPC. Two Sigma Advisers LP purchased a new stake in shares of W.P. Carey in the fourth quarter valued at $458,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of W.P. Carey by 26.2% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 319,738 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $17,419,000 after purchasing an additional 66,319 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of W.P. Carey by 8,486.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 162,193 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,236,000 after purchasing an additional 160,304 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in W.P. Carey by 37.8% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 4,154 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $262,000 after acquiring an additional 1,139 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. increased its stake in W.P. Carey by 108,600.0% during the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 8,696 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $548,000 after acquiring an additional 8,688 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on WPC. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded W.P. Carey from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $68.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 11th. Barclays upped their price target on W.P. Carey from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on W.P. Carey from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Scotiabank upped their price target on W.P. Carey from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on W.P. Carey from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, September 15th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $67.22.

W.P. Carey Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of WPC opened at $68.04 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.76, a P/E/G ratio of 9.96 and a beta of 0.82. W.P. Carey Inc. has a one year low of $52.91 and a one year high of $69.00. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average price of $66.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.32.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last issued its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $430.78 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $420.99 million. W.P. Carey had a return on equity of 4.00% and a net margin of 20.42%.W.P. Carey’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.17 earnings per share. W.P. Carey has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.870-4.950 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that W.P. Carey Inc. 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 Wednesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 30th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. This is an increase from W.P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 30th. W.P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 239.47%.

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.