Equity Investment Corp Buys New Holdings in W.P. Carey Inc. $WPC

Equity Investment Corp acquired a new stake in shares of W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 1,512,565 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $108,148,000. W.P. Carey makes up approximately 2.1% of Equity Investment Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in W.P. Carey by 1.6% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 753,196 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $46,984,000 after purchasing an additional 11,635 shares during the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC purchased a new position in W.P. Carey in the second quarter worth about $115,000. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its stake in W.P. Carey by 7.3% during the second quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 8,164 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $509,000 after acquiring an additional 555 shares during the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd bought a new stake in W.P. Carey during the second quarter worth approximately $3,494,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its position in W.P. Carey by 73.0% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 96,983 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,050,000 after purchasing an additional 40,908 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WPC has been the subject of several analyst reports. Evercore set a $77.00 price objective on W.P. Carey in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Barclays boosted their target price on W.P. Carey from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Bank of America upgraded W.P. Carey from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $73.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of W.P. Carey in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of W.P. Carey from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $73.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W.P. Carey presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $79.38.

W.P. Carey Price Performance

W.P. Carey stock opened at $71.09 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 0.22 and a quick ratio of 0.22. The stock has a market cap of $16.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.75. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $72.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $72.50. W.P. Carey Inc. has a 1 year low of $63.08 and a 1 year high of $77.22.

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 30th were issued a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 30th. This is a positive change from W.P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.3%. W.P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 128.33%.

W.P. Carey Profile

W. P. Carey Inc is a diversified net-lease real estate investment trust specializing in single-tenant commercial properties. The company structures sale-leaseback and build-to-suit transactions to provide long-term net lease financing across a variety of asset classes, including industrial facilities, office buildings, retail centers and self-storage facilities. By employing triple net leases, W. P. Carey transfers property operating expenses, taxes and maintenance responsibility to tenants, creating a stable, predictable income stream for investors.

Founded in 1973 by William Polk Carey, the firm has expanded organically and through strategic mergers and acquisitions.