W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Short Interest Up 25.1% in March

W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC - Get Free Report) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,640,000 shares, an increase of 25.1% from the March 15th total of 3,710,000 shares. Currently, 2.1% of the company's stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,300,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.6 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W. P. Carey

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 13.5% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 12,087 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $758,000 after purchasing an additional 1,442 shares in the last quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp purchased a new position in W. P. Carey in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $203,000. Achmea Investment Management B.V. lifted its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 10.6% during the first quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 173,202 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $10,931,000 after acquiring an additional 16,540 shares in the last quarter. Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of W. P. Carey in the first quarter valued at $312,000. Finally, Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV raised its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 26.1% during the 1st quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 5,288 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $334,000 after purchasing an additional 1,096 shares during the period. 73.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

W. P. Carey Stock Performance

W. P. Carey stock traded down $0.24 during trading on Friday, hitting $60.47. The stock had a trading volume of 123,886 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,177,963. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The stock's 50 day moving average is $61.63 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.13. W. P. Carey has a 1 year low of $52.91 and a 1 year high of $66.10. The stock has a market cap of $13.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.81.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.89 per share. This is an increase from W. P. Carey's previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $3.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.89%. W. P. Carey's dividend payout ratio is presently 170.33%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on WPC. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on W. P. Carey from $58.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. JMP Securities restated a "market perform" rating on shares of W. P. Carey in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded W. P. Carey from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $67.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, W. P. Carey has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $63.75.

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.