KBC Group NV Has $9.33 Million Holdings in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

KBC Group NV lifted its stake in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 746.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 149,820 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 132,124 shares during the period. KBC Group NV’s holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $9,334,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WPC. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc grew its position in W. P. Carey by 14.5% in the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc now owns 11,050 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $688,000 after purchasing an additional 1,400 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 649.4% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 553,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $34,507,000 after buying an additional 479,973 shares during the period. First Heartland Consultants Inc. acquired a new stake in W. P. Carey during the third quarter worth about $208,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in W. P. Carey by 36.0% during the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 27,859 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,736,000 after acquiring an additional 7,367 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in W. P. Carey by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 650,609 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $40,533,000 after acquiring an additional 8,049 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

W. P. Carey Price Performance

NYSE:WPC opened at $55.77 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The firm has a market cap of $12.21 billion, a PE ratio of 21.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.95. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 12 month low of $53.09 and a 12 month high of $67.40. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $59.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $58.21.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.13 by ($0.62). W. P. Carey had a return on equity of 6.45% and a net margin of 35.12%. The business had revenue of $394.78 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $377.43 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.32 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a $0.875 dividend. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.28%. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. W. P. Carey’s payout ratio is currently 137.80%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target (up previously from $62.00) on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.88.

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.