Legal & General Group Plc Sells 393,396 Shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Legal & General Group Plc lessened its holdings in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC - Free Report) by 14.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,347,357 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after selling 393,396 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 1.07% of W. P. Carey worth $127,884,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WPC. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 10.8% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 750,151 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $40,868,000 after acquiring an additional 72,833 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can grew its holdings in W. P. Carey by 8.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 35,927 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,957,000 after purchasing an additional 2,770 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 26,674 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,496,000 after buying an additional 1,763 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 11.3% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 27,494 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,498,000 after buying an additional 2,801 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its holdings in W. P. Carey by 33.0% in the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 83,494 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $4,549,000 after acquiring an additional 20,695 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% of the company's stock.

W. P. Carey Price Performance

NYSE:WPC traded up $1.06 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $61.62. The stock had a trading volume of 305,323 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,278,621. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.49 billion, a PE ratio of 29.48, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.81. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 52 week low of $52.91 and a 52 week high of $66.10. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $61.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $58.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a $0.89 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This is an increase from W. P. Carey's previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $3.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.78%. W. P. Carey's payout ratio is 170.33%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on WPC. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $58.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. BMO Capital Markets raised W. P. Carey from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their price target for the company from $60.00 to $67.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on W. P. Carey from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on W. P. Carey from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $63.75.

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.