BridgePort Financial Solutions LLC Acquires New Stake in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

BridgePort Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new position in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 27,522 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $1,499,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WPC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in W. P. Carey by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,820,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,679,110,000 after acquiring an additional 242,576 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position 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 valued at $256,201,000 after acquiring an additional 135,090 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 29.1% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,022,953 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $219,170,000 after purchasing an additional 906,622 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in W. P. Carey by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,641,815 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $143,926,000 after purchasing an additional 43,197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 40.3% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,641,229 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $143,894,000 after buying an additional 758,627 shares during the period. 73.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

W. P. Carey Stock Up 1.9%

WPC opened at $61.37 on Tuesday. W. P. Carey Inc. has a twelve month low of $52.91 and a twelve month high of $66.10. 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 firm has a 50 day moving average price of $60.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $58.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.36, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.78.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $407.44 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $412.99 million. W. P. Carey had a net margin of 29.11% and a return on equity of 5.37%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.14 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.87 earnings per share for the current year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.89 per share. This represents a $3.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.80%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 183.51%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WPC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on W. P. Carey from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. UBS Group reduced 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. Barclays set a $61.00 price objective on W. P. Carey and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded W. P. Carey from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $109.00.

W. P. Carey Company 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.