W. P. Carey Inc. (WPC) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.88 on October 15th

W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, September 19th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of 0.875 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.58%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87.

W. P. Carey has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 0.9% per year over the last three years. W. P. Carey has a payout ratio of 157.0% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect W. P. Carey to earn $4.63 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.50 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 75.6%.

W. P. Carey Stock Performance

WPC stock opened at $62.74 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.93, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $57.60. W. P. Carey has a twelve month low of $51.36 and a twelve month high of $67.40. The firm has a market cap of $13.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.86, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.94.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by ($0.47). The business had revenue of $389.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $381.39 million. W. P. Carey had a return on equity of 6.50% and a net margin of 34.83%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.36 EPS. Analysts predict that W. P. Carey will post 4.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WPC has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group raised their price target on W. P. Carey from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on W. P. Carey from $63.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Scotiabank cut their price target on W. P. Carey from $61.00 to $60.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. 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 report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on W. P. Carey from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $61.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other W. P. Carey news, Director Mark A. Alexander purchased 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $55.87 per share, with a total value of $195,545.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 38,124 shares in the company, valued at $2,129,987.88. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 1.08% of the company’s stock.

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.