Raymond James & Associates Increases Stock Holdings in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC - Free Report) by 23.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 360,517 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after acquiring an additional 68,886 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates owned 0.16% of W. P. Carey worth $19,846,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its position in W. P. Carey by 91.9% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 11,290,841 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $731,800,000 after acquiring an additional 5,407,289 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of W. P. Carey in the fourth quarter worth about $157,107,000. Equity Investment Corp acquired a new stake in W. P. Carey in the first quarter valued at approximately $59,802,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 4,716.5% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 802,426 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $52,005,000 after acquiring an additional 785,766 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,784,040 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,995,114,000 after purchasing an additional 657,188 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.73% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other W. P. Carey news, Director Mark A. Alexander purchased 3,500 shares of W. P. Carey stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $55.87 per share, for a total transaction of $195,545.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 38,124 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,129,987.88. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 1.08% of the company's stock.

W. P. Carey Stock Performance

WPC traded up $1.33 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $60.06. The stock had a trading volume of 894,820 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,277,154. The stock has a market cap of $13.14 billion, a PE ratio of 22.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.92. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 1 year low of $51.36 and a 1 year high of $67.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $57.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.80.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.12 by ($0.47). W. P. Carey had a net margin of 34.83% and a return on equity of 6.50%. The company had revenue of $389.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $381.39 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.36 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.53 earnings per share for the current year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th were given a $0.87 dividend. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.79%. This is a boost from W. P. Carey's previous quarterly dividend of $0.87. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 28th. W. P. Carey's dividend payout ratio is 132.32%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WPC. UBS Group increased their price objective on W. P. Carey from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective 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. JMP Securities reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of W. P. Carey in a report on Friday, June 21st. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $61.00 to $60.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price objective on W. P. Carey from $61.00 to $60.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $60.91.

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.