Insider Selling: W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) CAO Sells 440 Shares of Stock

W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) CAO Brian H. Zander sold 440 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.65, for a total transaction of $24,926.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 7,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $409,976.05. This represents a 5.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

W. P. Carey Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE WPC opened at $57.10 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.00. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 52-week low of $53.09 and a 52-week high of $67.40. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $59.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.22.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.13 by ($0.62). W. P. Carey had a return on equity of 6.45% and a net margin of 35.12%. The business had revenue of $394.78 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $377.43 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.32 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.52 earnings per share for the current year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $0.875 per share. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.13%. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio is presently 137.80%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WPC. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Evercore ISI increased their target price on W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target (up from $62.00) on shares of W. P. Carey in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. UBS Group dropped their price objective 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, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. P. Carey currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.88.

Institutional Trading of W. P. Carey

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of WPC. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in W. P. Carey by 660.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,054,080 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $127,969,000 after acquiring an additional 1,784,131 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in W. P. Carey by 22.2% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,240,705 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $178,401,000 after purchasing an additional 588,636 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in W. P. Carey by 649.4% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 553,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $34,507,000 after purchasing an additional 479,973 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its holdings in W. P. Carey by 185.7% during the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 684,355 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $37,631,000 after buying an additional 444,785 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Equity Investment Corp lifted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 38.9% in the second quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 1,472,017 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $81,035,000 after buying an additional 412,450 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.73% 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.