W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Short Interest Update

W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 4,080,000 shares, an increase of 20.4% from the February 13th total of 3,390,000 shares. Approximately 1.9% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,220,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.3 days.

Institutional Trading of W. P. Carey

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in W. P. Carey by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,820,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,679,110,000 after purchasing an additional 242,576 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in W. P. Carey by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,709,028 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $256,201,000 after purchasing an additional 135,090 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in W. P. Carey by 29.1% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,022,953 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $219,170,000 after purchasing an additional 906,622 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in W. P. Carey by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,641,815 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $143,926,000 after purchasing an additional 43,197 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in W. P. Carey by 40.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,641,229 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $143,894,000 after purchasing an additional 758,627 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on W. P. Carey from $58.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded W. P. Carey from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays upped their price target on W. P. Carey from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on W. P. Carey from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on W. P. Carey from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, W. P. Carey currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.75.

W. P. Carey Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WPC traded down $0.66 on Tuesday, hitting $61.95. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,958,209 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,106,761. W. P. Carey has a 12-month low of $52.91 and a 12-month high of $66.10. The company has a market capitalization of $13.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $58.72 and a 200-day moving average of $58.32.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.89 dividend. This represents a $3.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This is an increase from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio is 170.33%.

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.