Private Management Group Inc. Makes New $29.92 Million Investment in W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Key Points

• Private Management Group Inc. has made a significant investment of approximately $29.92 million in W.P. Carey Inc. during the first quarter, acquiring 474,144 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock.
• W.P. Carey recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.90 per share, reflecting a slight increase from the previous dividend, with an annualized yield of 5.59%.
• Several institutional investors have notably increased their positions in W.P. Carey, with Pacer Advisors Inc. boosting theirs by 1,016.8% in the same quarter.

Private Management Group Inc. acquired a new position in W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 474,144 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock, valued at approximately $29,923,000. Private Management Group Inc. owned approximately 0.22% of W.P. Carey as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of W.P. Carey by 1,016.8% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,751,921 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $110,564,000 after buying an additional 1,595,045 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in shares of W.P. Carey by 9.4% in the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 10,791 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $681,000 after buying an additional 931 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in shares of W.P. Carey by 12.8% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 286,043 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $18,052,000 after buying an additional 32,564 shares in the last quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of W.P. Carey by 10.5% in the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 70,297 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $4,436,000 after buying an additional 6,673 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brookwood Investment Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W.P. Carey in the 1st quarter worth about $558,000. 73.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on WPC. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of W.P. Carey from $66.00 to $63.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of W.P. Carey from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $66.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, June 9th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of W.P. Carey from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. BNP Paribas set a $66.00 price objective on shares of W.P. Carey and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of W.P. Carey from $410.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $104.22.

W.P. Carey Stock Up 1.5%

WPC opened at $64.40 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $62.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.72. The company has a market cap of $14.10 billion, a PE ratio of 33.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.25 and a beta of 0.78. W.P. Carey Inc. has a 1 year low of $52.91 and a 1 year high of $66.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.23.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $407.44 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $412.99 million. W.P. Carey had a return on equity of 5.02% and a net margin of 26.66%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.14 EPS. 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 firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th were given a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.59%. 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 is 185.57%.

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.

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