Wells Fargo & Company MN Cuts Stock Position in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC)

Wells Fargo & Company MN decreased its stake in shares of W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 4.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 364,236 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 15,617 shares during the quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN’s holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $19,844,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WPC. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of W. P. Carey in the 4th quarter worth about $139,381,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake 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 valued at $219,170,000 after purchasing an additional 906,622 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in W. P. Carey in the fourth quarter worth about $31,442,000. Equity Investment Corp lifted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 26.3% in the fourth quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 1,870,734 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $101,918,000 after buying an additional 389,107 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of W. P. Carey by 21.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,514,049 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $94,325,000 after buying an additional 264,230 shares during the last quarter. 73.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WPC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays boosted 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. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of W. P. Carey from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $58.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.75.

W. P. Carey Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of WPC stock opened at $57.87 on Monday. 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 company has a market cap of $12.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.69, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.81. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 1 year low of $52.91 and a 1 year high of $66.10. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $60.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $58.08.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a $0.89 dividend. This is a boost from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $3.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.15%. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio is presently 170.33%.

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.