Lecap Asset Management Ltd. Buys Shares of 27,871 W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Lecap Asset Management Ltd. purchased 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 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 27,871 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock, valued at approximately $1,759,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in W.P. Carey by 0.8% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 135,090 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 906,622 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of W.P. Carey by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,641,815 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $143,926,000 after purchasing an additional 43,197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in W.P. Carey by 40.3% in 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 during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% of the company's stock.

W.P. Carey Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:WPC opened at $64.37 on Wednesday. W.P. Carey Inc. has a 52 week low of $52.91 and a 52 week high of $66.10. The company's 50 day moving average is $62.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $59.60. The company has a market cap of $14.10 billion, a PE ratio of 33.18, a P/E/G ratio of 7.18 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a current ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $407.44 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $412.99 million. W.P. Carey had a net margin of 26.66% and a return on equity of 5.02%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.14 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a $0.90 dividend. This is a positive change from W.P. Carey's previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. W.P. Carey's dividend payout ratio is currently 183.51%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Barclays set a $61.00 target price on shares of W.P. Carey and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of W.P. Carey from $66.00 to $63.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on W.P. Carey from $58.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on W.P. Carey from $410.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price objective on W.P. Carey from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $100.40.

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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding WPC? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.