Warner Music Group (WMG) & Its Peers Head-To-Head Review

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) is one of 185 public companies in the “Entertainment” industry, but how does it compare to its rivals? We will compare Warner Music Group to similar companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Warner Music Group and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Warner Music Group	9.20%	85.50%	7.00%
Warner Music Group Competitors	9.71%	-32.22%	-3.02%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Warner Music Group and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Warner Music Group	0	4	11	1	2.81
Warner Music Group Competitors	1897	4557	9687	257	2.51

Warner Music Group currently has a consensus target price of $38.30, suggesting a potential upside of 20.25%. As a group, “Entertainment” companies have a potential upside of 15.01%. Given Warner Music Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Warner Music Group is more favorable than its rivals.

Risk and Volatility

Warner Music Group has a beta of 1.34, suggesting that its share price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Warner Music Group’s rivals have a beta of 1.00, suggesting that their average share price is 0% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

96.9% of Warner Music Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 36.0% of shares of all “Entertainment” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Warner Music Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 24.5% of shares of all “Entertainment” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Warner Music Group pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Warner Music Group pays out 63.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Entertainment” companies pay a dividend yield of 16.0% and pay out 79.3% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Warner Music Group has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Warner Music Group and its rivals revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Warner Music Group	$7.30 billion	$365.00 million	25.28
Warner Music Group Competitors	$6.20 billion	$67.29 million	2.40

Warner Music Group has higher revenue and earnings than its rivals. Warner Music Group is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Warner Music Group beats its rivals on 12 of the 15 factors compared.

About Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group is a global music entertainment company with two main businesses: recorded music and music publishing. Its recorded music operations discover and develop artists, release and market recordings, and distribute music through digital services and physical formats. The company works with artists across a range of genres and career stages. Through its recorded music labels, including Atlantic Records, Warner Records and Elektra Records, Warner Music Group supports artists with services such as artist development, marketing and distribution.