Kovack Advisors Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Kovack Advisors Inc. trimmed its position in shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,919 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 497 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $369,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WPC. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc raised its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 14.5% in the third quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc now owns 11,050 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $688,000 after buying an additional 1,400 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 649.4% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 553,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $34,507,000 after purchasing an additional 479,973 shares during the last quarter. First Heartland Consultants Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of W. P. Carey during the third quarter valued at $208,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 36.0% during the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 27,859 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,736,000 after purchasing an additional 7,367 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its stake in W. P. Carey by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 650,609 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $40,533,000 after buying an additional 8,049 shares during the period. 73.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

W. P. Carey Price Performance

WPC opened at $54.84 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.00 billion, a PE ratio of 21.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s 50-day moving average is $59.63 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.19. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 1 year low of $53.09 and a 1 year high of $67.40.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last released 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 return on equity of 6.45% and a net margin of 35.12%. The firm had revenue of $394.78 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $377.43 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.32 earnings per share. W. P. Carey’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 $0.875 dividend. This represents a $3.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. This is an increase from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 137.80%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price (up from $62.00) on shares of W. P. Carey in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Evercore ISI increased their price target on W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on W. P. Carey from $61.00 to $60.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.88.

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.