6,300 Shares in W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Bought by Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund bought a new position in shares of W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 6,300 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock, valued at approximately $398,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WPC. IAG Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of W.P. Carey by 7.0% in the first quarter. IAG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,495 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $157,000 after buying an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. DF Dent & Co. Inc. raised its position 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 valued at $298,000 after buying an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of 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. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of W.P. Carey by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 6,165 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $341,000 after buying an additional 315 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund raised its position in shares of W.P. Carey by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 44,584 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $2,429,000 after buying an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.73% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on WPC shares. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of 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. Barclays set a $61.00 price objective on shares of W.P. Carey and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. BNP Paribas set a $66.00 price objective on shares of W.P. Carey and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of W.P. Carey from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of W.P. Carey from $410.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $100.40.

W.P. Carey Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WPC traded down $0.16 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $62.82. 1,642,100 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,163,538. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $62.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $59.77. The stock has a market cap of $13.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.38, a PEG ratio of 7.00 and a beta of 0.80. W.P. Carey Inc. has a one year low of $52.91 and a one year high of $66.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC - Get Free Report) last posted 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). The company had revenue of $407.44 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $412.99 million. W.P. Carey had a return on equity of 5.02% and a net margin of 26.66%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.14 EPS. On average, 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 will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.73%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. This is a boost from W.P. Carey's previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. W.P. Carey's payout ratio is presently 183.51%.

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.