Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. Lowers Holdings in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. decreased its holdings in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 23.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,027 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 308 shares during the quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $67,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Demars Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in W. P. Carey by 14.0% in the 3rd quarter. Demars Financial Group LLC now owns 76,214 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,122,000 after buying an additional 9,334 shares during the period. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of W. P. Carey during the 3rd quarter worth about $613,000. Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 58,795 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,811,000 after purchasing an additional 439 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 219,159 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $11,852,000 after purchasing an additional 10,562 shares during the period. Finally, State of Michigan Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of W. P. Carey during the 4th quarter worth about $3,403,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com assumed coverage on W. P. Carey in a report on Thursday, January 4th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Scotiabank decreased their target price on W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 4th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on W. P. Carey from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on W. P. Carey from $66.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Raymond James cut W. P. Carey from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.36.

W. P. Carey Stock Performance

Shares of WPC opened at $56.22 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $56.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.68. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 52-week low of $51.36 and a 52-week high of $74.66. The firm has a market cap of $12.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.03, a PEG ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.14. W. P. Carey had a return on equity of 7.78% and a net margin of 40.68%. The company had revenue of $410.38 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $413.04 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.29 EPS. W. P. Carey’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a dividend of $0.865 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $3.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.15%. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 104.85%.

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.