Brokerages Set Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) PT at $35.81

Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and ten have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $35.81.

WMG has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup raised shares of Warner Music Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $34.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Evercore ISI dropped 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 research report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Warner Music Group from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, February 7th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Warner Music Group news, Director Valentin Blavatnik sold 28,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.45, for a total transaction of $1,000,753.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 68,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,419,958.80. This trade represents a 29.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,103 shares of Warner Music Group stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.49, for a total value of $40,248.47. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 88,649 shares in the company, valued at $3,234,802.01. This represents a 1.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 72.21% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WMG. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 122.6% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 1,064 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 586 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Warner Music Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd acquired a new position in Warner Music Group during the fourth quarter worth $43,000. State of Wyoming purchased a new position in shares of Warner Music Group during the fourth quarter worth $47,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 379.5% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,774 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 1,404 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Warner Music Group Stock Up 1.1 %

WMG stock opened at $32.85 on Thursday. Warner Music Group has a one year low of $27.06 and a one year high of $36.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.69. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $32.97 and its 200 day moving average is $31.96. The firm has a market cap of $17.09 billion, a PE ratio of 33.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.33.

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

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Monday, February 24th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 24th. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.