W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Increases Dividend to $0.88 Per Share

W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, September 20th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of 0.875 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $3.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This is a positive change from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87.

W. P. Carey has decreased its dividend by an average of 0.9% per year over the last three years. W. P. Carey has a payout ratio of 156.1% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities analysts expect W. P. Carey to earn $4.63 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 75.2%.

W. P. Carey Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of W. P. Carey stock traded down $0.13 during trading on Friday, reaching $62.99. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 763,654 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,228,520. W. P. Carey has a 1-year low of $51.36 and a 1-year high of $67.40. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $57.37. The company has a quick ratio of 1.93, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The company has a market cap of $13.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 0.94.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.12 by ($0.47). W. P. Carey had a return on equity of 6.50% and a net margin of 34.83%. The business had revenue of $389.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $381.39 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.36 EPS. W. P. Carey’s revenue was down 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that W. P. Carey will post 4.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WPC has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on W. P. Carey from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 26th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $70.00 to $68.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Friday, June 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $60.30.

Insider Activity

In other W. P. Carey news, Director Mark A. Alexander bought 3,500 shares of W. P. Carey stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $2,129,987.88. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 1.08% of the company’s stock.

W. P. Carey Company 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.