Raymond James Financial Inc. Makes New Investment in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 577,138 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $31,442,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,820,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,679,110,000 after buying an additional 242,576 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 135,090 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 29.1% during the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 906,622 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in W. P. Carey by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,641,815 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $143,926,000 after buying an additional 43,197 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in W. P. Carey in the 4th quarter valued at about $139,381,000. 73.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WPC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Wells Fargo & Company upped 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. Evercore ISI raised their price target on W. P. Carey from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded W. P. Carey from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $67.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on W. P. Carey from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, W. P. Carey currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.75.

W. P. Carey Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:WPC opened at $61.36 on Thursday. W. P. Carey Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $52.91 and a fifty-two week high of $66.10. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $61.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $58.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market cap of $13.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.81.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.89 per share. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $3.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. W. P. Carey’s payout ratio is 170.33%.

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.