Blue Trust Inc. Buys 237 Shares of W.P. Carey Inc. $WPC

Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 34.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 919 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 237 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in W.P. Carey were worth $57,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WPC. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in W.P. Carey during the 1st quarter worth about $26,000. TCTC Holdings LLC lifted its position in W.P. Carey by 100.8% during the 1st quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 482 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Cheviot Value Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of W.P. Carey in the 1st quarter valued at about $37,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of W.P. Carey in the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, REAP Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of W.P. Carey by 56.4% in the 2nd quarter. REAP Financial Group LLC now owns 660 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 238 shares during the period. 73.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WPC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of W.P. Carey from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, September 15th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of W.P. Carey from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $68.00 to $72.00 in a report on Thursday, September 11th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of W.P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 15th. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of W.P. Carey from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of W.P. Carey from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $67.22.

W.P. Carey Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of WPC opened at $68.47 on Friday. W.P. Carey Inc. has a 52 week low of $52.91 and a 52 week high of $69.79. The firm has a market cap of $14.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.90 and a beta of 0.81. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $67.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $63.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.19 and a current ratio of 0.19.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by $0.05. W.P. Carey had a net margin of 20.42% and a return on equity of 4.00%. The firm had revenue of $430.78 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $420.99 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.17 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. W.P. Carey has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.870-4.950 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that W.P. Carey Inc. will post 4.87 earnings per share for the current year.

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th were given a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.3%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 30th. This is a boost from W.P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. W.P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 239.47%.

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.