Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Grows Stake in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky boosted its position in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 18.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 73,400 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,240 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $4,143,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WPC. Cetera Advisors LLC increased its position in W. P. Carey by 69.0% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 216,708 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $12,231,000 after buying an additional 88,466 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in W. P. Carey by 211.6% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 360,336 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $20,337,000 after buying an additional 244,699 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc increased its position in W. P. Carey by 21.7% during the first quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 19,449 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,098,000 after buying an additional 3,466 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in W. P. Carey during the first quarter worth $1,804,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in W. P. Carey during the first quarter worth $1,068,000. 73.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on W. P. Carey from $70.00 to $68.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of W. P. Carey in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on W. P. Carey from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on W. P. Carey from $61.00 to $60.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $60.91.

W. P. Carey Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE WPC traded down $0.06 on Friday, hitting $57.23. The company had a trading volume of 1,576,385 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,184,878. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 12-month low of $51.36 and a 12-month high of $67.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.76, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.92. The business has a 50 day moving average of $56.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $57.46.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.12 by ($0.47). The company had revenue of $389.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $381.39 million. W. P. Carey had a net margin of 34.83% and a return on equity of 6.50%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.36 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th were issued a dividend of $0.87 per share. This is an increase from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 28th. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 132.32%.

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.