Analysts Set Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Price Target at $38.25

Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and twelve have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $38.25.

A number of analysts have recently commented on WMG shares. Zacks Research lowered shares of Warner Music Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Wall Street Zen cut Warner Music Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, July 18th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $36.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Thursday, August 6th.

Warner Music Group Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ:WMG opened at $27.16 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.94, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.72. Warner Music Group has a 1 year low of $23.34 and a 1 year high of $35.42. The company has a market cap of $14.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.56, a PEG ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 1.31. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $27.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.31.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.81 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 85.50% and a net margin of 9.20%.Warner Music Group’s revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.03) EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Warner Music Group will post 1.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Warner Music Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 20th. This is a positive change from Warner Music Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 63.49%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Warner Music Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 15.2% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 16,645,276 shares of the company’s stock worth $510,511,000 after buying an additional 2,200,362 shares during the last quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP raised its position in Warner Music Group by 0.8% in the second quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 11,943,199 shares of the company’s stock worth $323,302,000 after acquiring an additional 93,199 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,208,005 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,743,000 after acquiring an additional 56,727 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 88.3% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,521,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,867,000 after acquiring an additional 713,578 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group in the 4th quarter worth $35,449,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

About Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group Corp. is a global music entertainment company that operates through two principal businesses: recorded music and music publishing. Its recorded-music operations discover, develop, market and distribute music from a broad roster of artists through labels including Warner Records, Atlantic Records, Elektra Music Group and Parlophone.

The company’s music publishing business, Warner Chappell Music, manages and administers copyrights for songwriters and composers. Warner Music Group also provides artist and label services, digital distribution, licensing, marketing, physical and digital sales, and other services that support the commercial use of recorded music and musical compositions.

Warner Music Group serves artists, songwriters, labels, streaming platforms, broadcasters, brands and other music-industry partners in markets around the world.