W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Shares Sold by Commonwealth Equity Services LLC

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lowered its stake in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 5.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,150,464 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 69,711 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC owned 0.53% of W. P. Carey worth $71,674,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WPC. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of W. P. Carey in the first quarter valued at about $26,000. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV boosted its holdings in W. P. Carey by 93.1% in the 2nd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 479 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 231 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in W. P. Carey by 1,510.0% during the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 483 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 453 shares in the last quarter. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of W. P. Carey during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Quarry LP lifted its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 175.9% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 560 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at W. P. Carey

In related news, Director Mark A. Alexander purchased 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $55.87 per share, for a total transaction of $195,545.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 38,124 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,129,987.88. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.08% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

W. P. Carey Stock Performance

W. P. Carey stock opened at $60.01 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.03. The stock has a market cap of $13.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.93. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 1-year low of $51.60 and a 1-year high of $67.40.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.12 by ($0.47). W. P. Carey had a return on equity of 6.50% and a net margin of 34.83%. The business had revenue of $389.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $381.39 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.36 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.52 EPS for the current year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a $0.875 dividend. This is a positive change from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87. This represents a $3.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. W. P. Carey’s payout ratio is 133.08%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on WPC. Barclays increased their price objective on W. P. Carey from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $63.00 target price (up from $62.00) on shares of W. P. Carey in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $70.00 to $68.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. P. Carey presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.25.

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.