Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Warner Music Group Corp. $WMG

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,056,402 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 15,397 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $32,400,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 120.1% during the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 865 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 472 shares during the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 774.6% during the 3rd quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 1,207 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 1,069 shares during the last quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 480.9% during the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 1,493 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 1,236 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its position in Warner Music Group by 355.7% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,531 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 1,195 shares during the period. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its position in Warner Music Group by 740.0% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,890 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 1,665 shares during the period. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMG has been the subject of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $43.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley set a $39.00 price target on Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Moffett Nathanson initiated coverage on Warner Music Group in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. They set a “buy” rating and a $38.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.38.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

Shares of WMG opened at $33.43 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $27.98 and a two-hundred day moving average of $29.02. Warner Music Group Corp. has a one year low of $23.34 and a one year high of $34.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.62, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.73. The stock has a market cap of $17.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.33, a P/E/G ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.25.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.61 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 62.01% and a net margin of 6.34%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.07 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.52 EPS for the current year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 26th will be issued a $0.19 dividend. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 26th. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 89.41%.

Warner Music Group Profile

Warner Music Group is a major global music company that operates across recorded music and music publishing. Its recorded-music business comprises a portfolio of well-known labels—including Atlantic, Warner Records and Parlophone—as well as distribution and artist-services operations that support both established and emerging artists. The company’s publishing arm, Warner Chappell Music, manages songwriting catalogs and administers rights for compositions across multiple media, providing licensing for film, television, advertising and other commercial uses.

WMG’s activities span the full music value chain: signing and developing artists, producing and marketing recordings, distributing music through physical channels and streaming platforms, and monetizing rights through licensing, synchronization and neighboring-rights collection.