Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.19

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, November 7th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 19th will be paid a dividend of 0.19 per share on Tuesday, December 2nd. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 19th.

Warner Music Group has a payout ratio of 55.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 $0.76 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 50.3%.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WMG traded up $0.48 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $30.23. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,406,316 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,885,395. Warner Music Group has a one year low of $25.56 and a one year high of $36.64. The company has a market cap of $15.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $32.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.37.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.27 by ($0.30). Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 39.95% and a net margin of 4.59%.The business had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.27 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Warner Music Group will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on WMG. UBS Group set a $45.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Warner Music Group from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Zacks Research downgraded Warner Music Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Friday, October 10th. Redburn Atlantic raised Warner Music Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $30.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Warner Music Group from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Warner Music Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.76.

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.