Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Grows Stake in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its stake in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 37.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 118,819 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 32,675 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS owned approximately 0.05% of W. P. Carey worth $6,473,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WPC. National Pension Service purchased a new position in W. P. Carey in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of W. P. Carey during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $37,000. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W. P. Carey during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of W. P. Carey during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Finally, Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W. P. Carey during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $58,000. 73.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WPC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $58.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of W. P. Carey from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $60.00 to $67.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of W. P. Carey in a report on Thursday, February 13th. 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. P. Carey presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.75.

W. P. Carey Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WPC opened at $61.62 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $59.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.48, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.95. W. P. Carey Inc. has a one year low of $52.91 and a one year high of $66.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.89 dividend. This is a positive change from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $3.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.78%. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio is presently 170.33%.

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.