BNP Paribas Financial Markets Decreases Stock Position in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets cut its stake in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC - Free Report) by 47.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 162,368 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after selling 143,936 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets owned about 0.07% of W. P. Carey worth $8,846,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. DF Dent & Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in W. P. Carey by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. DF Dent & Co. Inc. now owns 5,464 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $298,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its stake in W. P. Carey by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 44,381 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $2,418,000 after buying an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in W. P. Carey by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 8,698 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $474,000 after buying an additional 259 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in W. P. Carey by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 3,778 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $206,000 after buying an additional 271 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cooper Financial Group raised its stake in W. P. Carey by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 11,905 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $649,000 after buying an additional 276 shares in the last quarter. 73.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WPC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised their price target on W. P. Carey from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on W. P. Carey from $58.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on W. P. Carey from $410.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays raised their price target 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded 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 research note on Tuesday, February 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. P. Carey currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $108.50.

W. P. Carey Stock Performance

Shares of WPC opened at $61.79 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market cap of $13.53 billion, a PE ratio of 29.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.78. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $61.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.26. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 12-month low of $52.91 and a 12-month high of $66.10.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $407.44 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $412.99 million. W. P. Carey had a return on equity of 5.37% and a net margin of 29.11%. The business's revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.14 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.87 EPS for the current year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were given a $0.89 dividend. This represents a $3.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.76%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. This is a boost from W. P. Carey's previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. W. P. Carey's payout ratio is 183.51%.

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.

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