Brokerages Set W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Price Target at $63.75

Shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) have received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $63.75.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on W. P. Carey from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of W. P. Carey in a report on Thursday, February 13th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W. P. Carey

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WPC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in W. P. Carey by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,820,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,679,110,000 after purchasing an additional 242,576 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,709,028 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $256,201,000 after buying an additional 135,090 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 29.1% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,022,953 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $219,170,000 after buying an additional 906,622 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,641,815 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $143,926,000 after buying an additional 43,197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in W. P. Carey by 40.3% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,641,229 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $143,894,000 after buying an additional 758,627 shares during the period. 73.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

W. P. Carey Price Performance

Shares of WPC stock opened at $62.67 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.38. W. P. Carey has a one year low of $52.91 and a one year high of $66.10. The firm has a market cap of $13.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.95.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.89 per share. This is an increase from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $3.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.68%. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio is currently 170.33%.

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.