QRG Capital Management Inc. Raises Holdings in W.P. Carey Inc. $WPC

QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 4.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 137,390 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 5,356 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in W.P. Carey were worth $8,570,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of W.P. Carey by 13.5% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 12,087 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $758,000 after buying an additional 1,442 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in W.P. Carey by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 606,427 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $38,272,000 after purchasing an additional 26,665 shares in the last quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK purchased a new position in W.P. Carey in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $345,000. Ethos Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in W.P. Carey in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $372,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in W.P. Carey by 36.1% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,570 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $162,000 after purchasing an additional 681 shares in the last quarter. 73.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WPC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on W.P. Carey from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, September 15th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on W.P. Carey from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. BNP Paribas Exane raised W.P. Carey from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $66.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of W.P. Carey in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on W.P. Carey from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, W.P. Carey currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $67.22.

W.P. Carey Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WPC opened at $69.15 on Monday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $66.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $63.50. The stock has a market cap of $15.14 billion, a PE ratio of 45.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.07 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.19 and a current ratio of 0.19. W.P. Carey Inc. has a one year low of $52.91 and a one year high of $69.79.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.28 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $430.78 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $420.99 million. W.P. Carey had a return on equity of 4.00% and a net margin of 20.42%.W.P. Carey’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.17 EPS. W.P. Carey has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.870-4.950 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that W.P. Carey Inc. will post 4.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.3%. This is a boost from W.P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. W.P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio is currently 239.47%.

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.