Handelsbanken Fonder AB Buys 6,921 Shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its stake in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 5.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 139,094 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,921 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $9,015,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its holdings in W. P. Carey by 130.0% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 2,516,956 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $136,117,000 after purchasing an additional 1,422,490 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 6,411.6% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 410,101 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $26,579,000 after buying an additional 403,803 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in W. P. Carey by 17.2% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,285,355 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $123,592,000 after purchasing an additional 334,635 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in W. P. Carey by 4,604.2% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 233,091 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $12,606,000 after purchasing an additional 228,136 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its position in W. P. Carey by 78.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 502,141 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $27,157,000 after purchasing an additional 220,868 shares during the period. 73.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on WPC. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 12th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of W. P. Carey in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Barclays began coverage on shares of W. P. Carey in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $40.00 price objective on the stock. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Raymond James cut shares of W. P. Carey from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.36.

W. P. Carey Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE:WPC opened at $56.43 on Thursday. W. P. Carey Inc. has a one year low of $51.36 and a one year high of $74.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.62. The firm has a market cap of $12.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.10, a P/E/G ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 0.86. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $56.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.82.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.14. W. P. Carey had a net margin of 40.68% and a return on equity of 7.78%. The business had revenue of $410.38 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $413.04 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.29 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a dividend of $0.865 per share. This represents a $3.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.13%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This is a positive change from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. W. P. Carey’s payout ratio is 104.85%.

W. P. Carey 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.