Liberty Square Wealth Partners LLC Makes New Investment in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Liberty Square Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 11,099 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock, valued at approximately $651,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased 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 purchasing an additional 242,576 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 valued at $256,201,000 after acquiring 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% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,022,953 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $219,170,000 after acquiring an additional 906,622 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 1.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 43,197 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 40.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,641,229 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $143,894,000 after acquiring an additional 758,627 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.73% of the company's stock.

W. P. Carey Price Performance

NYSE:WPC traded up $0.23 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $63.07. 1,263,772 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,178,938. The company has a market capitalization of $13.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.78. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 12 month low of $52.91 and a 12 month high of $66.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $60.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $58.69.

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

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a $0.89 dividend. This is a positive change from W. P. Carey's previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $3.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.64%. W. P. Carey's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 183.51%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WPC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised 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 note on Monday, March 10th. 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. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $66.00 to $63.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of W. P. Carey from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $410.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $109.00.

About W. P. Carey

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.