Ethic Inc. Decreases Stock Position in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Ethic Inc. reduced its stake in shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC - Free Report) by 38.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,108 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after selling 5,100 shares during the period. Ethic Inc.'s holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $442,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,820,665 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,679,110,000 after buying an additional 242,576 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in W. P. Carey by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,709,028 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $256,201,000 after purchasing an additional 135,090 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 29.1% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 906,622 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 1.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 43,197 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 40.3% during the 4th 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 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 down $0.19 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $60.87. The company had a trading volume of 206,714 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,197,133. The company has a market capitalization of $13.33 billion, a PE ratio of 29.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 52-week low of $52.91 and a 52-week high of $66.10. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $60.94 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.47.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $407.44 million during 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%. W. P. Carey's revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.14 earnings per share. As a group, research 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a $0.89 dividend. This represents a $3.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.85%. This is a positive change from W. P. Carey's previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. W. P. Carey's payout ratio is presently 183.51%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WPC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Scotiabank raised their price target on W. P. Carey from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded W. P. Carey from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price target for the company from $60.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. JMP Securities restated a "market perform" rating on shares of W. P. Carey in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned 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 $109.00.

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.