Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Buys 22,516 Shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc boosted its stake in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC - Free Report) by 16.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 156,091 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after purchasing an additional 22,516 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc owned about 0.07% of W. P. Carey worth $8,504,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WPC. DF Dent & Co. Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 worth $298,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its holdings in W. P. Carey by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 44,381 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $2,418,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC increased its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 259 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 3,778 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $206,000 after acquiring an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cooper Financial Group boosted its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 11,905 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $649,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.73% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WPC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI upped their price target on 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. Barclays raised their price target on W. P. Carey from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective 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. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of W. P. Carey in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of W. P. Carey from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $60.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. One 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 company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $108.50.

W. P. Carey Stock Down 1.3%

Shares of W. P. Carey stock opened at $60.99 on Tuesday. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 1 year low of $52.91 and a 1 year high of $66.10. The firm has a market cap of $13.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.18, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a 50-day moving average of $61.21 and a 200 day moving average of $58.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98.

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 for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.03). W. P. Carey had a net margin of 29.11% and a return on equity of 5.37%. The business had revenue of $407.44 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $412.99 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.14 EPS. W. P. Carey's revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a $0.89 dividend. This represents a $3.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.84%. This is an increase from W. P. Carey's previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. W. P. Carey's payout ratio is 183.51%.

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.

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