Northern Trust Corp Increases Stock Holdings in W.P. Carey Inc. $WPC

Key Points

• Northern Trust Corp acquired an additional 55,615 shares of W.P. Carey Inc., increasing its ownership by 2.1% to a total of approximately 2.7 million shares, valued at $170.2 million.
• Several institutional investors have also increased their stakes in W.P. Carey, with Summit Securities Group LLC seeing a significant 60% increase in their holdings during the first quarter.
• W.P. Carey recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.90, a rise from the previous $0.89, reflecting a 5.4% yield and a high dividend payout ratio of 236.84%.

Northern Trust Corp raised its position in W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC - Free Report) by 2.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,696,844 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after purchasing an additional 55,615 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned about 1.23% of W.P. Carey worth $170,198,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of WPC. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of W.P. Carey by 13.5% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 12,087 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $758,000 after acquiring an additional 1,442 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of W.P. Carey by 4.6% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 606,427 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $38,272,000 after acquiring an additional 26,665 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK acquired a new stake in shares of W.P. Carey during the first quarter valued at $345,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of W.P. Carey by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,188,603 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $119,235,000 after acquiring an additional 134,523 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of W.P. Carey by 36.1% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,570 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $162,000 after acquiring an additional 681 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.73% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WPC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on W.P. Carey from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. BNP Paribas Exane raised W.P. Carey from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $66.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on 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. UBS Group raised their price target on W.P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on W.P. Carey from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $65.67.

W.P. Carey Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of W.P. Carey stock traded down $0.4010 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $66.1190. The stock had a trading volume of 1,446,012 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,363,213. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $63.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $62.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.50, a P/E/G ratio of 9.65 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a current ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 0.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. W.P. Carey Inc. has a 1 year low of $52.91 and a 1 year high of $67.40.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.28 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.23 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $430.78 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $420.99 million. W.P. Carey had a return on equity of 4.00% and a net margin of 20.42%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.17 EPS. W.P. Carey has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.870-4.950 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that W.P. Carey Inc. will post 4.87 earnings per share for the current year.

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th were issued a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 30th. This is an increase from W.P. Carey's previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. W.P. Carey's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 236.84%.

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.