W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,760,000 shares, a decrease of 26.6% from the December 15th total of 5,120,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 753,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.0 days.
W. P. Carey stock opened at $79.16 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $79.33 and a 200 day moving average of $78.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.18, a P/E/G ratio of 7.29 and a beta of 0.74. W. P. Carey has a 12-month low of $65.75 and a 12-month high of $83.19. The company has a current ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87.
W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $1.22 by ($0.48). The firm had revenue of $325.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $322.64 million. W. P. Carey had a return on equity of 6.26% and a net margin of 35.21%. The company’s revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.15 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that W. P. Carey will post 4.85 EPS for the current year.
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 14th. Investors of record on Friday, December 31st were issued a $1.055 dividend. This represents a $4.22 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.33%. This is a positive change from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.05. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 30th. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio is currently 171.54%.
WPC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of W. P. Carey from $89.00 to $87.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 1st. Zacks Investment Research cut shares of W. P. Carey from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $86.50.
A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC grew its holdings in W. P. Carey by 71.9% during the 4th quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 104,811 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $8,600,000 after buying an additional 43,846 shares in the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. grew its holdings in W. P. Carey by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 8,929 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $733,000 after buying an additional 599 shares in the last quarter. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc grew its holdings in W. P. Carey by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc now owns 15,471 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,269,000 after buying an additional 147 shares in the last quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. grew its holdings in W. P. Carey by 13.8% during the 4th quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 4,779 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $392,000 after buying an additional 578 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mountain Capital Investment Advisors Inc grew its holdings in W. P. Carey by 38.0% during the 4th quarter. Mountain Capital Investment Advisors Inc now owns 20,299 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,607,000 after buying an additional 5,585 shares in the last quarter. 58.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
About W. P. Carey
W.P. Carey, Inc operates as a real estate investment trust. It operates through two segment: Real Estate Ownership and Investment Management. The Real Estate Ownership segment owns and invests in commercial real estate properties. The Investment Management segment structures and negotiates investments and debt placement transactions for the real estate investment trusts, and manages portfolios of real estate investments.