Citigroup Inc. Trims Position in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Citigroup Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC - Free Report) by 9.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 297,687 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after selling 32,103 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. owned about 0.14% of W. P. Carey worth $18,546,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV increased its holdings in W. P. Carey by 35.9% during the third quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 651 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 172 shares during the last quarter. Catalytic Wealth RIA LLC increased its holdings in W. P. Carey by 5.2% during the second quarter. Catalytic Wealth RIA LLC now owns 4,033 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $222,000 after buying an additional 198 shares during the last quarter. Kowal Investment Group LLC increased its holdings in W. P. Carey by 3.4% during the second quarter. Kowal Investment Group LLC now owns 6,070 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $334,000 after buying an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. increased its holdings in W. P. Carey by 5.9% during the third quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 3,626 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $226,000 after buying an additional 203 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning increased its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 0.3% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 64,709 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $4,031,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. 73.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WPC. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an "equal weight" rating and issued a $63.00 price objective (up from $62.00) on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $62.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $62.88.

W. P. Carey Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of WPC traded up $0.69 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $57.54. The stock had a trading volume of 885,375 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,209,075. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 1 year low of $53.09 and a 1 year high of $67.40. The firm has a market cap of $12.59 billion, a PE ratio of 22.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The stock's 50 day moving average is $58.70 and its 200 day moving average is $58.21.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.13 by ($0.62). W. P. Carey had a net margin of 35.12% and a return on equity of 6.45%. The firm had revenue of $394.78 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $377.43 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.32 EPS. The company's revenue was down 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a $0.875 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $3.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.08%. This is an increase from W. P. Carey's previous quarterly dividend of $0.87. W. P. Carey's dividend payout ratio is currently 137.80%.

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.