W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Short Interest Up 25.1% in March

by · The Cerbat Gem

W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC – Get Free Report) saw a large increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,640,000 shares, an increase of 25.1% from the March 15th total of 3,710,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,300,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.6 days. Approximately 2.1% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

W. P. Carey Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE WPC traded down $0.80 during trading on Monday, reaching $61.37. The stock had a trading volume of 875,838 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,181,190. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $61.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.07. W. P. Carey has a fifty-two week low of $52.91 and a fifty-two week high of $66.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. The company has a market cap of $13.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.36, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.81.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.89 per share. This is an increase from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $3.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio is presently 170.33%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On W. P. Carey

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in W. P. Carey by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,820,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,679,110,000 after purchasing an additional 242,576 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in W. P. Carey by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,709,028 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $256,201,000 after acquiring an additional 135,090 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in W. P. Carey by 29.1% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,022,953 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $219,170,000 after acquiring an additional 906,622 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in W. P. Carey by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,641,815 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $143,926,000 after acquiring an additional 43,197 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 40.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,641,229 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $143,894,000 after purchasing an additional 758,627 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Scotiabank boosted their target price on W. P. Carey from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of W. P. Carey from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $60.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of W. P. Carey from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.75.

View Our Latest Stock Report on WPC

W. P. Carey Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.

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