W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Receives Consensus Rating of “Reduce” from Analysts

Shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) have earned an average rating of “Reduce” from the eleven research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $63.36.

Several research analysts have recently commented on WPC shares. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Barclays started coverage on W. P. Carey in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $40.00 price objective on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on W. P. Carey from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 12th. StockNews.com started coverage on W. P. Carey in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Raymond James downgraded W. P. Carey from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th.

W. P. Carey Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:WPC opened at $55.58 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $12.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.84, a PEG ratio of 0.44 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. W. P. Carey has a 1 year low of $51.36 and a 1 year high of $74.66. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $56.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.69.

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

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.865 per share. This represents a $3.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 104.85%.

Institutional Trading of W. P. Carey

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in W. P. Carey by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,784,040 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,995,114,000 after acquiring an additional 657,188 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 15,373,667 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,190,691,000 after purchasing an additional 368,425 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. increased its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 91.9% during the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 11,290,841 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $731,800,000 after purchasing an additional 5,407,289 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,228,412 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $802,831,000 after purchasing an additional 208,561 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 46.1% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,558,610 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $507,966,000 after purchasing an additional 2,068,458 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

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.