W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Shares Sold by Sigma Planning Corp

Sigma Planning Corp decreased its stake in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 56.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 6,031 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 7,877 shares during the quarter. Sigma Planning Corp’s holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $391,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WPC. Central Bank & Trust Co. acquired a new position in W. P. Carey during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new position in W. P. Carey during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Covestor Ltd raised its position in W. P. Carey by 316.5% during the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 783 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 595 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of W. P. Carey during the third quarter worth about $45,000. Finally, Provence Wealth Management Group purchased a new stake in shares of W. P. Carey during the third quarter worth about $46,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WPC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $66.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 12th. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of W. P. Carey in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $40.00 price target for the company. Raymond James downgraded shares of W. P. Carey from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.36.

W. P. Carey Price Performance

W. P. Carey stock opened at $55.00 on Friday. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 1 year low of $51.36 and a 1 year high of $74.66. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $56.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.79. The company has a market cap of $12.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.67, a PEG ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.62.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $410.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $413.04 million. W. P. Carey had a net margin of 40.68% and a return on equity of 7.78%. W. P. Carey’s revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.29 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.57 earnings per share for the current year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a dividend of $0.865 per share. This represents a $3.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.29%. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. W. P. Carey’s payout ratio is 104.85%.

W. P. Carey 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.