Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd Cuts Stake in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lessened its stake in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 56,342 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,291 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd’s holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $3,102,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of WPC. iA Global Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in W. P. Carey in the 2nd quarter worth $213,000. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 8.5% in the second quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 9,675 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $533,000 after buying an additional 760 shares in the last quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new position in W. P. Carey during the second quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Arkadios Wealth Advisors grew its holdings in W. P. Carey by 49.9% during the 2nd quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 15,483 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $852,000 after buying an additional 5,151 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in W. P. Carey by 247.3% in the 2nd quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $684,000 after acquiring an additional 8,843 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

W. P. Carey Price Performance

WPC opened at $60.01 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The business has a fifty day moving average of $57.55 and a 200 day moving average of $56.81. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 52-week low of $51.36 and a 52-week high of $67.40. The stock has a market cap of $13.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.82, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.92.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last posted its quarterly 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $381.39 million. W. P. Carey had a return on equity of 6.50% and a net margin of 34.83%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.36 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.53 EPS for the current 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 issued a $0.87 dividend. This is a positive change from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 28th. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.80%. W. P. Carey’s payout ratio is presently 132.32%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other W. P. Carey news, Director Mark A. Alexander bought 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $55.87 per share, for a total transaction of $195,545.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 38,124 shares in the company, valued at $2,129,987.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.08% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WPC. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 26th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of W. P. Carey in a report on Friday, June 21st. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on W. P. Carey from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $60.00.

W. P. Carey Company 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.