Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Boosts Stake in W.P. Carey Inc. $WPC

Key Points

• Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in W.P. Carey Inc. by 2.3% in the first quarter, now owning 1,082,219 shares valued at approximately $68.3 million.
• W.P. Carey recently reported earnings of $1.28 per share for the last quarter, exceeding analysts’ expectations of $1.23, alongside an annual revenue increase of 10.5%.
• The company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.90, reflecting an annualized dividend of $3.60 and a yield of 5.5%.

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC - Free Report) by 2.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,082,219 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after acquiring an additional 23,868 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned 0.49% of W.P. Carey worth $68,300,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of WPC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of W.P. Carey by 274.7% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,112,190 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $322,630,000 after buying an additional 3,747,898 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of W.P. Carey by 1,016.8% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,751,921 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $110,564,000 after purchasing an additional 1,595,045 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings 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 worth $143,894,000 after purchasing an additional 758,627 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec acquired a new position in shares of W.P. Carey during the fourth quarter worth $31,124,000. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of W.P. Carey during the first quarter worth $30,194,000. Institutional investors own 73.73% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on WPC shares. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of W.P. Carey from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of W.P. Carey from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of W.P. Carey from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $66.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, June 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on shares of W.P. Carey from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of W.P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, August 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $65.89.

W.P. Carey Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of NYSE WPC traded up $0.60 during trading on Friday, hitting $67.08. 850,711 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,242,030. The business's fifty day moving average is $64.15 and its 200 day moving average is $62.46. W.P. Carey Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $52.91 and a fifty-two week high of $67.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.13, a P/E/G ratio of 9.76 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 (NYSE:WPC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.28 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $430.78 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $420.99 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.17 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. W.P. Carey has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.870-4.950 EPS. Equities research 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 firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th were issued a $0.90 dividend. This is a boost 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 yield of 5.4%. W.P. Carey's payout ratio is 236.84%.

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.