Empowered Funds LLC Purchases New Holdings in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 3,507 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $218,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV boosted its holdings in W. P. Carey by 93.1% in the second quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 479 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 231 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in W. P. Carey by 1,510.0% in 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. Quarry LP raised its position in W. P. Carey by 175.9% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 560 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 357 shares during the last quarter. Lynx Investment Advisory bought a new position in W. P. Carey during the 2nd quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W. P. Carey during the 2nd quarter valued at about $39,000. Institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on WPC. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $63.00 price objective (up previously from $62.00) on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.88.

W. P. Carey Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WPC opened at $56.84 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $12.44 billion, a PE ratio of 22.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.95. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 1 year low of $53.09 and a 1 year high of $67.40. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $58.83 and a 200-day moving average price of $58.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 1.00.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by ($0.62). W. P. Carey had a return on equity of 6.45% and a net margin of 35.12%. The business had revenue of $394.78 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $377.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.32 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a $0.875 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.16%. W. P. Carey’s payout ratio is currently 137.80%.

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.