Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation and ten have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $35.81.

A number of research analysts have issued reports on WMG shares. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Loop Capital lowered their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.96, for a total value of $1,083,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 242,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,503,465.60. This represents a 12.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,103 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.49, for a total value of $40,248.47. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 88,649 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,234,802.01. The trade was a 1.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 64,333 shares of company stock worth $2,124,602 over the last ninety days. 72.21% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 37.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,754,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $274,016,000 after buying an additional 2,370,973 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 1.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,628,263 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,284,000 after acquiring an additional 49,166 shares during the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 2,699.4% in the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 8,217,467 shares of the company’s stock worth $257,207,000 after acquiring an additional 7,923,926 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 355.3% in the third quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 44,337 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,388,000 after purchasing an additional 34,599 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 84.8% during the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 31,616 shares of the company’s stock valued at $980,000 after purchasing an additional 14,507 shares in the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Warner Music Group Stock Down 1.4 %

WMG stock opened at $33.78 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $32.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.58 billion, a PE ratio of 34.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.35. Warner Music Group has a 12 month low of $27.06 and a 12 month high of $36.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.11. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 79.01% and a net margin of 8.07%. Equities analysts expect that Warner Music Group will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 24th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 24th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.13%. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 73.47%.

Warner Music Group Company Profile

Warner Music Group Corp. operates as a music entertainment company in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and internationally. It operates through Recorded Music and Music Publishing segments. The Recorded Music segment is involved in the discovery and development of recording artists, as well as related marketing, promotion, distribution, sale, and licensing of music created by such recording artists; markets its music catalog through compilations and reissuances of previously released music and video titles, as well as previously unreleased materials; and conducts its operation primarily through a collection of record labels, such as Warner Records and Atlantic Records, as well as Asylum, Big Beat, Canvasback, East West, Erato, FFRR, Fueled by Ramen, Nonesuch, Parlophone, Reprise, Roadrunner, Sire, Spinnin’ Records, Warner Classics, and Warner Music Nashville.