Equity Investment Corp Acquires 389,107 Shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Equity Investment Corp lifted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 26.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,870,734 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 389,107 shares during the period. W. P. Carey accounts for about 2.4% of Equity Investment Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. Equity Investment Corp owned approximately 0.85% of W. P. Carey worth $101,918,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 64.8% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,559 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $97,000 after buying an additional 613 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 70.6% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 824 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 341 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 46.8% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 14,278 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $896,000 after purchasing an additional 4,554 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 1.4% during the third quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 145,388 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $9,058,000 after buying an additional 1,983 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Modera Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in W. P. Carey during the third quarter worth $223,000. Institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on WPC. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on W. P. Carey from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of W. P. Carey from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $60.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of W. P. Carey in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $60.00 to $59.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.38.

W. P. Carey Stock Performance

Shares of WPC stock opened at $64.34 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. The firm has a market cap of $14.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.97. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 52 week low of $52.91 and a 52 week high of $64.63. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $56.35 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $57.84.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a $0.88 dividend. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. W. P. Carey’s payout ratio is 168.42%.

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.