W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Director Purchases $195,545.00 in Stock

W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Director Mark A. Alexander bought 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 9th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $55.87 per share, with a total value of $195,545.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 38,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,129,987.88. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

W. P. Carey Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE WPC traded down $0.47 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $55.81. 1,160,317 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,303,847. The stock has a market cap of $12.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.11, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.92. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $56.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.04. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 1-year low of $51.36 and a 1-year high of $67.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 0.90.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by ($0.47). W. P. Carey had a net margin of 34.83% and a return on equity of 6.50%. The firm had revenue of $389.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $381.39 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.36 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th were given a dividend of $0.87 per share. This is a positive change from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.24%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 28th. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 132.32%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on WPC. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $61.00 to $60.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $70.00 to $68.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 12th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $61.00 to $60.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $60.91.

Institutional Trading of W. P. Carey

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WPC. Cerity Partners LLC raised its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 11.2% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 15,420 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,000,000 after purchasing an additional 1,555 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in W. P. Carey during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,979,000. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in W. P. Carey during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,067,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in W. P. Carey by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 762,912 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $49,444,000 after acquiring an additional 12,601 shares during the period. Finally, Bourgeon Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in W. P. Carey by 17.9% during the 4th quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 3,296 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $214,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

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.