LPL Financial LLC Cuts Stock Position in W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Key Points

• LPL Financial LLC reduced its stake in W.P. Carey Inc. by 2.7%, selling 19,093 shares, bringing its total holdings to 680,868 shares valued at approximately $42.97 million.
• The company reported a quarterly earnings per share of $1.28, exceeding estimates, and experienced a year-over-year revenue increase of 10.5%.
• W.P. Carey declared a quarterly dividend of $0.90, up from $0.89, representing an annualized payout of $3.60 and a yield of 5.5%.

LPL Financial LLC lowered its stake in shares of W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC - Free Report) by 2.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 680,868 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after selling 19,093 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC owned about 0.31% of W.P. Carey worth $42,970,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. IAG Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in 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 worth $157,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the period. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. increased its position in shares of W.P. Carey by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. now owns 4,145 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $262,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. DF Dent & Co. Inc. increased its holdings in W.P. Carey by 3.5% during 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 during the last quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of W.P. Carey by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 6,877 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $434,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Applied Finance Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of W.P. Carey by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Applied Finance Capital Management LLC now owns 5,490 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $346,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% of the company's stock.

W.P. Carey Stock Performance

WPC stock traded up $1.04 during trading on Monday, reaching $66.02. The company had a trading volume of 1,686,362 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,325,600. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $63.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $61.22. The company has a market cap of $14.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.38 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.19 and a current ratio of 0.19. W.P. Carey Inc. has a twelve month low of $52.91 and a twelve month high of $66.64.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $430.78 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $420.99 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.17 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that W.P. Carey Inc. will post 4.87 earnings per share for the current year.

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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.