Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Makes New Investment in W.P. Carey Inc. $WPC

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 70,176 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $4,378,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Kestra Investment Management LLC grew its position in W.P. Carey by 20.4% during the second quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC now owns 4,921 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $307,000 after buying an additional 835 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of W.P. Carey in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co grew its holdings in shares of W.P. Carey by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 494,164 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $30,848,000 after purchasing an additional 18,689 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of W.P. Carey by 87.2% during the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 94,062 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,868,000 after purchasing an additional 43,812 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in shares of W.P. Carey by 2,712.0% in the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 771,534 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $48,128,000 after purchasing an additional 744,097 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on WPC. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of W.P. Carey in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of W.P. Carey from $79.00 to $74.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $69.00 target price on shares of W.P. Carey in a research note on Monday, December 8th. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of W.P. Carey from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised W.P. Carey from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $72.00 in a report on Thursday, September 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $68.50.

W.P. Carey Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of NYSE:WPC opened at $65.76 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $66.87 and its 200-day moving average is $65.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a current ratio of 0.25. W.P. Carey Inc. has a 52 week low of $52.91 and a 52 week high of $69.79. The company has a market capitalization of $14.41 billion, a PE ratio of 39.86, a P/E/G ratio of 6.08 and a beta of 0.78.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.23 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $431.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $424.44 million. W.P. Carey had a net margin of 21.75% and a return on equity of 4.40%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.18 EPS. W.P. Carey has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.930-4.990 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that W.P. Carey Inc. will post 4.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.92 dividend. This represents a $3.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 31st. This is an increase from W.P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. W.P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 220.61%.

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.