W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Shares Sold by Sigma Planning Corp

Sigma Planning Corp lowered its stake in shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 56.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,031 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 7,877 shares during the period. Sigma Planning Corp’s holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $391,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of WPC. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 130.0% during 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 in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake 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 worth $26,579,000 after purchasing an additional 403,803 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of 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 worth $123,592,000 after purchasing an additional 334,635 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 worth $12,606,000 after purchasing an additional 228,136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of 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 worth $27,157,000 after purchasing an additional 220,868 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

W. P. Carey Stock Performance

W. P. Carey stock opened at $55.00 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $56.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.79. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 1-year low of $51.36 and a 1-year high of $74.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The stock has a market cap of $12.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 0.86.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.66 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $413.04 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.29 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.57 EPS for the current year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were issued a $0.865 dividend. This is a positive change from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $3.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio is currently 104.85%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WPC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Scotiabank cut their target price 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. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $66.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. 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. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Barclays started coverage on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $40.00 price objective for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.36.

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.