W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) Hits New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $61.00 to $64.00. Barclays currently has an underweight rating on the stock. W.P. Carey traded as high as $66.75 and last traded at $66.25, with a volume of 105790 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $65.57.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of W.P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 15th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of W.P. Carey from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $66.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of W.P. Carey from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on W.P. Carey from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, BNP Paribas set a $66.00 target price on W.P. Carey and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, June 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $65.67.

Institutional Trading of W.P. Carey

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WPC. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in W.P. Carey by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 8,196 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $447,000 after acquiring an additional 485 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S bought a new position in shares of W.P. Carey in the fourth quarter valued at about $597,000. MML Investors Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of W.P. Carey by 16.6% during the 4th quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 148,515 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $8,091,000 after buying an additional 21,159 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its holdings in shares of W.P. Carey by 10.3% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 11,658 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $635,000 after buying an additional 1,091 shares during the period. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp grew its stake in W.P. Carey by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 35,139 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,914,000 after buying an additional 3,355 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

W.P. Carey Stock Performance

The stock’s 50 day moving average is $63.85 and its 200 day moving average is $62.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 0.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. The firm has a market cap of $14.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.73 and a beta of 0.78.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $430.78 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $420.99 million. W.P. Carey had a return on equity of 4.00% and a net margin of 20.42%.The business’s revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.17 earnings per share. W.P. Carey has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.870-4.950 EPS. Analysts anticipate 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th were given a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 30th. This is a boost from W.P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.4%. W.P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 236.84%.

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.