Eastern Bank Takes $60,000 Position in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Eastern Bank bought a new position in shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 965 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $60,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of W. P. Carey in the first quarter worth $26,000. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV grew its position in W. P. Carey by 93.1% during the second quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 479 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 231 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in W. P. Carey by 1,510.0% in the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 483 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 453 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP raised its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 175.9% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 560 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lynx Investment Advisory bought a new stake in shares of W. P. Carey during the 2nd quarter valued at about $34,000. 73.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

W. P. Carey Stock Performance

NYSE:WPC opened at $57.28 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $60.71 and a 200 day moving average of $58.15. The company has a market capitalization of $12.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.78, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.94. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 1-year low of $51.60 and a 1-year high of $67.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.93.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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%. W. P. Carey’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.36 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a $0.875 dividend. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. W. P. Carey’s payout ratio is 133.08%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Mark A. Alexander purchased 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $55.87 per share, with a total value of $195,545.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 38,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,129,987.88. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WPC. UBS Group lifted their price target on W. P. Carey from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on W. P. Carey from $70.00 to $68.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on W. P. Carey from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, W. P. Carey presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.25.

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.