W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) Price Target Raised to $77.00

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) had its target price upped by Royal Bank Of Canada from $73.00 to $77.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a sector perform rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on WPC. Scotiabank cut their price objective on W.P. Carey from $79.00 to $76.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of W.P. Carey in a research report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of W.P. Carey from $86.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of W.P. Carey from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $73.00 to $88.00 in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of W.P. Carey from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.31.

W.P. Carey Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of NYSE WPC opened at $73.63 on Thursday. W.P. Carey has a fifty-two week low of $63.08 and a fifty-two week high of $77.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.22. The company has a market cap of $16.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.13, a PEG ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.76. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $73.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $72.24.

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th were issued a $0.94 dividend. This is a boost from W.P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.1%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 30th. W.P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio is presently 128.33%.

Insider Activity at W.P. Carey

In other W.P. Carey news, CAO Brian H. Zander sold 433 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $32,042.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 13,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,027,268. This represents a 3.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.98% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WPC. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in W.P. Carey by 1.6% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 753,196 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $46,984,000 after acquiring an additional 11,635 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of W.P. Carey during the second quarter worth $115,000. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its position in shares of W.P. Carey by 7.3% during the second quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 8,164 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $509,000 after purchasing an additional 555 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of W.P. Carey during the 2nd quarter valued at $3,494,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in shares of W.P. Carey by 73.0% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 96,983 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,050,000 after purchasing an additional 40,908 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.73% of the company’s stock.

W.P. Carey Company Profile

W. P. Carey Inc is a diversified net-lease real estate investment trust specializing in single-tenant commercial properties. The company structures sale-leaseback and build-to-suit transactions to provide long-term net lease financing across a variety of asset classes, including industrial facilities, office buildings, retail centers and self-storage facilities. By employing triple net leases, W. P. Carey transfers property operating expenses, taxes and maintenance responsibility to tenants, creating a stable, predictable income stream for investors.

Founded in 1973 by William Polk Carey, the firm has expanded organically and through strategic mergers and acquisitions.