Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. Raises Holdings in W.P. Carey Inc. $WPC

Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its stake in shares of W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 137,483 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,150 shares during the quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.’s holdings in W.P. Carey were worth $8,576,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 1,442 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 26,665 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK purchased a new position in shares of W.P. Carey in the 1st quarter valued at about $345,000. Ethos Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of W.P. Carey in the 1st quarter valued at about $372,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 681 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

W.P. Carey Stock Up 0.2%

W.P. Carey stock opened at $67.62 on Thursday. W.P. Carey Inc. has a twelve month low of $52.91 and a twelve month high of $69.79. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $67.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $64.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 0.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.49, a PEG ratio of 9.77 and a beta of 0.81.

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $430.78 million during 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%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.17 EPS. W.P. Carey has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.870-4.950 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that W.P. Carey Inc. will post 4.87 earnings per share for the current year.

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th were issued a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.4%. This is an increase from W.P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. W.P. Carey’s payout ratio is 239.47%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on WPC shares. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded W.P. Carey from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $72.00 in a report on Thursday, September 11th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of W.P. Carey in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on W.P. Carey from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on W.P. Carey from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, September 15th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on W.P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W.P. Carey has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $67.44.

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.