Focus Partners Wealth Increases Stock Position in W.P. Carey Inc. $WPC

Key Points

• Focus Partners Wealth increased its holdings in W.P. Carey Inc. by 336.7% in the first quarter, acquiring over 49,000 shares to reach a total value of approximately $4.07 million.
• W.P. Carey reported $1.28 earnings per share for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations, with a year-over-year revenue increase of 10.5%.
• The stock has seen a mix of ratings from analysts, with three ratings for Buy, six for Hold, and one for Sell, reflecting a consensus rating of Hold with an average target price of $67.22.

Focus Partners Wealth raised its stake in shares of W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC - Free Report) by 336.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 64,376 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after buying an additional 49,635 shares during the quarter. Focus Partners Wealth's holdings in W.P. Carey were worth $4,065,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WPC. IAG Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of W.P. Carey by 7.0% during 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 in the last quarter. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. raised its holdings in shares of W.P. Carey by 4.2% during the first quarter. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. now owns 4,145 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $262,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of W.P. Carey by 2.8% during the first quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 6,877 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $434,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. SouthState Corp raised its holdings in shares of W.P. Carey by 15.7% during the first quarter. SouthState Corp now owns 1,439 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $91,000 after acquiring an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC grew its stake in W.P. Carey by 1.0% in the first quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 21,684 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,368,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on WPC. BNP Paribas Exane raised W.P. Carey from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $66.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Scotiabank increased their target price on W.P. Carey from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. BNP Paribas set a $66.00 target price on W.P. Carey and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, June 9th. UBS Group increased their target price 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, Wells Fargo & Company raised W.P. Carey from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $68.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $67.22.

W.P. Carey Trading Down 0.4%

WPC traded down $0.28 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $67.17. 3,449,779 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,062,748. The company has a quick ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 0.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $65.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.71 billion, a PE ratio of 44.19, a PEG ratio of 9.82 and a beta of 0.82. W.P. Carey Inc. has a 52-week low of $52.91 and a 52-week high of $69.00.

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

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.4%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 30th. This is a boost from W.P. Carey's previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. W.P. Carey's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 236.84%.

W.P. Carey Company 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.