Sheets Smith Wealth Management Purchases 17,447 Shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Sheets Smith Wealth Management increased its position in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 22.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 95,648 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 17,447 shares during the period. Sheets Smith Wealth Management’s holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $5,211,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of WPC. Quarry LP lifted its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 175.9% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 560 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 357 shares during the last quarter. Maia Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. P. Carey during the third quarter worth approximately $40,000. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV boosted its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 35.9% in the third quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 651 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 172 shares during the period. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 2,374.1% in the third quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 668 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 641 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fortitude Family Office LLC increased its position in W. P. Carey by 962.5% during the third quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC now owns 680 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 616 shares during the period. 73.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WPC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $63.00 price target (up from $62.00) on shares of W. P. Carey in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on W. P. Carey from $60.00 to $59.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of W. P. Carey in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and set a $59.00 price objective (up from $56.00) on shares of W. P. Carey in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.43.

W. P. Carey Price Performance

Shares of WPC stock opened at $56.86 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $12.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.97. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $55.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.86. W. P. Carey Inc. has a one year low of $52.91 and a one year high of $66.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 1.00.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by ($0.62). The company had revenue of $394.78 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $377.43 million. W. P. Carey had a return on equity of 6.45% and a net margin of 35.12%. The company’s revenue was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.32 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a $0.88 dividend. This is a positive change from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $3.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 138.58%.

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.