Empowered Funds LLC Makes New $218,000 Investment in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new stake in shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 3,507 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $218,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in W. P. Carey by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 157,771 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $8,906,000 after buying an additional 5,975 shares during the last quarter. SVB Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W. P. Carey in the 1st quarter valued at $214,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 14.7% during the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 16,104 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $888,000 after purchasing an additional 2,058 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC purchased a new position in W. P. Carey in the 1st quarter worth $342,000. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. bought a new stake in W. P. Carey in the first quarter worth $248,000. 73.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

W. P. Carey Stock Performance

NYSE:WPC opened at $56.84 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. W. P. Carey Inc. has a twelve month low of $53.09 and a twelve month high of $67.40. The stock has a market cap of $12.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.22.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.13 by ($0.62). W. P. Carey had a net margin of 35.12% and a return on equity of 6.45%. The company had revenue of $394.78 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $377.43 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.32 EPS. W. P. Carey’s quarterly revenue was down 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.52 EPS for the current year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a $0.875 dividend. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.16%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 137.80%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on WPC shares. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $63.00 price objective (up previously from $62.00) on shares of W. P. Carey in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Scotiabank cut their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $61.00 to $60.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of 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. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, W. P. Carey currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.88.

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.