Warner Music Group Corp. (WMG) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.18 on June 3rd

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, May 16th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share on Tuesday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.60%.

Warner Music Group has raised its dividend by an average of 9.0% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 4 years. Warner Music Group has a dividend payout ratio of 51.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Warner Music Group to earn $1.51 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.7%.

Warner Music Group Trading Up 0.6%

NASDAQ:WMG opened at $27.69 on Friday. Warner Music Group has a 12 month low of $26.34 and a 12 month high of $36.64. The firm has a market cap of $14.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67. The company’s 50 day moving average is $30.07 and its 200-day moving average is $31.52.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.21). Warner Music Group had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 79.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.52 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.18 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.43, for a total value of $31,430.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 87,649 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,754,808.07. The trade was a 1.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Valentin Blavatnik sold 28,230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $2,419,958.80. This represents a 29.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 72.21% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Warner Music Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Amundi raised its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 120.7% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 7,496 shares of the company’s stock valued at $232,000 after buying an additional 4,100 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 10.2% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 77,162 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,420,000 after buying an additional 7,119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 5.6% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 948,741 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,743,000 after buying an additional 50,035 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WMG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 9th. FBN Securities began coverage on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, March 28th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $35.00 target price on the stock. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $31.00 to $28.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Macquarie reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.50.

About Warner Music Group

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.