Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Boosts Position in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc boosted its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC - Free Report) by 16.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 156,091 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after acquiring an additional 22,516 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc owned about 0.07% of W. P. Carey worth $8,504,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in W. P. Carey by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,820,665 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,679,110,000 after acquiring an additional 242,576 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in W. P. Carey by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,709,028 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $256,201,000 after acquiring an additional 135,090 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in W. P. Carey by 29.1% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,022,953 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $219,170,000 after acquiring an additional 906,622 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,641,815 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $143,926,000 after buying an additional 43,197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 40.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,641,229 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $143,894,000 after buying an additional 758,627 shares during the last quarter. 73.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

W. P. Carey Stock Performance

WPC stock traded up $0.63 during trading on Friday, reaching $61.88. The company had a trading volume of 1,146,057 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,170,744. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.41. The company has a market cap of $13.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.78. 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 Inc. has a twelve month low of $52.91 and a twelve month high of $66.10.

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

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.89 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This is a positive change from W. P. Carey's previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $3.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.75%. W. P. Carey's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 183.51%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on WPC shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $410.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $58.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of W. P. Carey from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their price target for the company from $60.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Evercore ISI increased 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 research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $108.88.

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.