W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Shares Acquired by Russell Investments Group Ltd.

Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its position in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 99.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 351,187 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 175,347 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $22,810,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WPC. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 44.7% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 3,640,966 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $235,971,000 after acquiring an additional 1,124,010 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in W. P. Carey by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,835,656 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $153,352,000 after purchasing an additional 37,055 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,337,056 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $126,388,000 after purchasing an additional 12,982 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 17.2% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,285,355 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $123,592,000 after buying an additional 334,635 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PGGM Investments boosted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 2,108,963 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $114,053,000 after buying an additional 142,649 shares during the last quarter. 73.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on WPC shares. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $40.00 price target for the company. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 12th. StockNews.com started coverage on W. P. Carey in a report on Thursday, January 4th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Raymond James downgraded W. P. Carey from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. P. Carey has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.36.

W. P. Carey Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WPC opened at $54.64 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $55.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $58.88. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 52-week low of $51.36 and a 52-week high of $73.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.56, a P/E/G ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.86.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $410.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $413.04 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.29 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.56 earnings per share for the current year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a $0.865 dividend. This represents a $3.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.33%. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.