Bank of Nova Scotia Sells 6,476 Shares of W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Key Points

• The Bank of Nova Scotia has reduced its stake in W.P. Carey Inc. by 46%, now holding 7,609 shares valued at $480,000 after selling 6,476 shares in the first quarter.
• Despite the decrease by Bank of Nova Scotia, other institutional investors, including Massachusetts Financial Services and Northern Trust Corp, have increased their stakes in W.P. Carey, contributing to a total hedge fund ownership of 73.73% in the company.
• W.P. Carey has recently increased its quarterly dividend from $0.89 to $0.90 per share, reflecting a positive shift for investors with an annualized yield of 5.5%.

Bank of Nova Scotia cut its position in shares of W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC - Free Report) by 46.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,609 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after selling 6,476 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia's holdings in W.P. Carey were worth $480,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its position in shares of W.P. Carey by 9.0% during the first quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 36,904 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $2,329,000 after acquiring an additional 3,044 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in W.P. Carey by 3.1% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 26,009 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,641,000 after acquiring an additional 772 shares in the last quarter. Commerce Bank raised its holdings in W.P. Carey by 6.9% during the first quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 9,049 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $571,000 after acquiring an additional 587 shares in the last quarter. King Wealth Management Group bought a new stake in W.P. Carey in the first quarter valued at approximately $221,000. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of W.P. Carey by 26.3% during the first quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 32,701 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $2,064,000 after purchasing an additional 6,803 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.73% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on WPC shares. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on W.P. Carey from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. BNP Paribas set a $66.00 price objective on W.P. Carey and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, June 9th. Barclays set a $61.00 target price on W.P. Carey and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on W.P. Carey from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on W.P. Carey from $66.00 to $63.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $65.00.

W.P. Carey Trading Down 0.4%

NYSE WPC traded down $0.28 during trading on Monday, hitting $65.60. 893,843 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,247,317. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 0.19 and a quick ratio of 0.19. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $63.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $61.57. The firm has a market cap of $14.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.16, a PEG ratio of 9.62 and a beta of 0.78. W.P. Carey Inc. has a 12-month low of $52.91 and a 12-month high of $66.64.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.23 by $0.05. W.P. Carey had a net margin of 20.42% and a return on equity of 4.00%. The company had revenue of $430.78 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $420.99 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.17 earnings per share. W.P. Carey's revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that W.P. Carey Inc. will post 4.87 EPS for the current year.

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th were given a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.5%. This is an increase from W.P. Carey's previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 30th. W.P. Carey's payout ratio is 236.84%.

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.