Empower Advisory Group LLC Reduces Stake in W.P. Carey Inc. $WPC

Empower Advisory Group LLC cut its position in shares of W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 19.0% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 4,719 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,108 shares during the period. Empower Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in W.P. Carey were worth $294,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of WPC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of W.P. Carey by 274.7% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,112,190 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $322,630,000 after buying an additional 3,747,898 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in W.P. Carey by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,606,018 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $286,581,000 after acquiring an additional 87,150 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in W.P. Carey by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,696,844 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $170,198,000 after acquiring an additional 55,615 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in W.P. Carey by 0.8% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,662,310 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $168,018,000 after acquiring an additional 20,495 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its position in W.P. Carey by 3.1% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 2,257,017 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $142,440,000 after acquiring an additional 68,414 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

W.P. Carey Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WPC opened at $66.97 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $14.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.59, a P/E/G ratio of 9.57 and a beta of 0.80. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $67.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $64.95. W.P. Carey Inc. has a 52 week low of $52.91 and a 52 week high of $69.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 0.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $431.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $424.44 million. W.P. Carey had a return on equity of 4.40% and a net margin of 21.75%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.18 EPS. W.P. Carey has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.930-4.990 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that W.P. Carey Inc. will post 4.87 EPS for the current year.

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 30th were issued a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 30th. This is a positive change from W.P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.4%. W.P. Carey’s payout ratio is presently 220.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of W.P. Carey from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $68.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 11th. UBS Group increased their target price on W.P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 15th. Scotiabank raised their price target on W.P. Carey from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of W.P. Carey in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on W.P. Carey from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, W.P. Carey currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $67.89.

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.