Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Upgraded to Neutral at Rothschild & Co Redburn

Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded shares of Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) from a sell rating to a neutral rating in a research note published on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $30.00 price target on the stock.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on WMG. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. Bank of America raised Warner Music Group from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $28.00 to $33.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, FBN Securities assumed coverage on Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, March 28th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $35.00 price objective on the stock. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $33.72.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

NASDAQ:WMG opened at $30.31 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.43. The company has a market capitalization of $15.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.24. Warner Music Group has a 52 week low of $25.56 and a 52 week high of $36.64. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $27.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $30.09.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.21). The firm had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.52 billion. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 7.14% and a return on equity of 64.64%. Warner Music Group’s quarterly revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.18 EPS. Equities analysts expect 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, June 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 27th were given a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.38%. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is currently 82.76%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Warner Music Group by 36.6% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 15,296,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $479,552,000 after buying an additional 4,097,688 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Warner Music Group by 10.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,379,667 shares of the company’s stock valued at $450,803,000 after buying an additional 1,316,979 shares in the last quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP increased its holdings in Warner Music Group by 127.0% in the first quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 13,378,864 shares of the company’s stock valued at $419,427,000 after buying an additional 7,483,839 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Warner Music Group by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,371,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $414,504,000 after buying an additional 82,149 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Darlington Partners Capital Management LP increased its holdings in Warner Music Group by 16.9% in the fourth quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 10,370,280 shares of the company’s stock valued at $321,479,000 after buying an additional 1,500,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

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.