BNP Paribas Upgrades W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) to Hold

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) was upgraded by stock analysts at BNP Paribas to a “hold” rating in a report released on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on WPC. Barclays set a $61.00 price objective on shares of W. P. Carey and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $66.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of W. P. Carey from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $67.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on W. P. Carey from $410.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on W. P. Carey from $58.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, W. P. Carey has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.40.

W. P. Carey Stock Performance

Shares of WPC stock opened at $63.41 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The company has a market cap of $13.89 billion, a PE ratio of 30.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.80. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.12. W. P. Carey has a 52 week low of $52.91 and a 52 week high of $66.10.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.20 by ($0.03). W. P. Carey had a net margin of 29.11% and a return on equity of 5.37%. The company had revenue of $407.44 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $412.99 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.14 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that W. P. Carey will post 4.87 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WPC. Sei Investments Co. grew its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 17.1% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 56,085 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,056,000 after acquiring an additional 8,197 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,188,603 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $119,235,000 after purchasing an additional 134,523 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in W. P. Carey by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,709,028 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $256,201,000 after acquiring an additional 135,090 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 355,333 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $19,359,000 after purchasing an additional 12,560 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vestcor Inc lifted its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 120.4% during the 4th quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 69,640 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,794,000 after acquiring an additional 38,043 shares during the last quarter. 73.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.