Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 1,441 Shares of W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System cut its stake in W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 12.5% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 10,127 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,441 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in W.P. Carey were worth $639,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in W.P. Carey in the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. TCTC Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of W.P. Carey by 100.8% during the 1st quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 482 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Cheviot Value Management LLC bought a new position in shares of W.P. Carey during the 1st quarter worth approximately $37,000. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of W.P. Carey by 118.6% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 741 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 402 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fourth Dimension Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of W.P. Carey during the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,000. 73.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

W.P. Carey Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WPC opened at $65.72 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 0.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. W.P. Carey Inc. has a twelve month low of $52.91 and a twelve month high of $66.64. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $63.53 and its 200-day moving average is $61.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.24, a PEG ratio of 9.56 and a beta of 0.78.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.23 by $0.05. W.P. Carey had a return on equity of 4.00% and a net margin of 20.42%. The business had revenue of $430.78 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $420.99 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.17 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that W.P. Carey Inc. will post 4.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th were paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. This is a boost from W.P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 30th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.5%. W.P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 236.84%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI increased their price target on W.P. Carey from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. BNP Paribas set a $66.00 price target on W.P. Carey and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, June 9th. Barclays set a $61.00 price target on W.P. Carey and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. UBS Group cut their price target on W.P. Carey from $66.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on W.P. Carey from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W.P. Carey has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.00.

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.