W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) Cut to “Sector Perform” at Royal Bank Of Canada

Royal Bank Of Canada lowered shares of W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating in a report released on Monday morning, MarketBeat reports. They currently have $69.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of W.P. Carey from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $68.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 11th. Barclays increased their target price on W.P. Carey from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of W.P. Carey in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of 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. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of W.P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $68.60.

W.P. Carey Stock Performance

Shares of W.P. Carey stock opened at $66.05 on Monday. W.P. Carey has a one year low of $52.91 and a one year high of $69.79. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $67.06 and its 200-day moving average is $65.58. The firm has a market cap of $14.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.12 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.25 and a quick ratio of 0.25.

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

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 30th. This is a positive change from W.P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. W.P. Carey’s payout ratio is presently 220.61%.

Institutional Trading of W.P. Carey

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WPC. Andra AP fonden raised its stake in W.P. Carey by 27.9% in the second quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 160,700 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $10,024,000 after buying an additional 35,100 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in shares of W.P. Carey by 6.6% in the 2nd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 63,927 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,988,000 after acquiring an additional 3,986 shares during the period. Ethos Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of W.P. Carey in the 1st quarter worth $372,000. Jump Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W.P. Carey during the 1st quarter worth $4,605,000. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of W.P. Carey by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 129,356 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $8,124,000 after purchasing an additional 9,794 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

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.