Eldridge Investment Advisors Inc. Decreases Stake in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Eldridge Investment Advisors Inc. lessened its stake in shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 11.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,875 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,200 shares during the quarter. Eldridge Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $575,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund increased its stake in W. P. Carey by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 97,434 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,269,000 after buying an additional 8,400 shares during the period. Accurate Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in W. P. Carey by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Accurate Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,996 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $222,000 after buying an additional 599 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. raised its holdings in W. P. Carey by 9.7% during the 3rd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 8,148 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $441,000 after buying an additional 720 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in W. P. Carey by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 142,279 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,694,000 after buying an additional 2,270 shares during the period. Finally, Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. raised its holdings in W. P. Carey by 27.8% during the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 18,683 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,010,000 after buying an additional 4,068 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

W. P. Carey Price Performance

W. P. Carey stock traded up $1.50 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $56.13. 717,852 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,347,236. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $55.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $58.85. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 52-week low of $51.36 and a 52-week high of $73.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.62. The company has a market cap of $12.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.34, a PEG ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.86.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last released its 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 company had revenue of $410.38 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $413.04 million. W. P. Carey had a return on equity of 6.35% and a net margin of 33.65%. W. P. Carey’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.29 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.56 earnings per share for the current year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a $0.865 dividend. This is an increase from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $3.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.16%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 131.56%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Scotiabank lowered their price target on W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Raymond James downgraded shares of W. P. Carey from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. P. Carey presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.36.

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.