Cooke & Bieler LP Has $180.31 Million Stake in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

Cooke & Bieler LP trimmed its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG - Free Report) by 2.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,751,655 shares of the company's stock after selling 139,524 shares during the period. Warner Music Group makes up about 1.8% of Cooke & Bieler LP's investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest position. Cooke & Bieler LP owned 1.11% of Warner Music Group worth $180,314,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Darsana Capital Partners LP increased its position in Warner Music Group by 7,206.3% in the 4th quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 6,000,000 shares of the company's stock valued at $186,000,000 after acquiring an additional 5,917,879 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 27.9% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 11,199,012 shares of the company's stock worth $347,169,000 after buying an additional 2,444,508 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 43.5% during the 4th quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 7,920,342 shares of the company's stock worth $245,531,000 after buying an additional 2,400,500 shares during the period. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP grew its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 16.9% during the 4th quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 10,370,280 shares of the company's stock worth $321,479,000 after buying an additional 1,500,000 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 148.2% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 344,312 shares of the company's stock worth $10,674,000 after buying an additional 1,058,895 shares during the period. 96.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

WMG stock traded down $0.05 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $31.22. The stock had a trading volume of 1,716,302 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,768,071. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.43. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 52 week low of $25.56 and a 52 week high of $36.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.89, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $27.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.09.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.21). Warner Music Group had a net margin of 7.14% and a return on equity of 64.64%. The company had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.18 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 27th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.31%. Warner Music Group's dividend payout ratio is presently 82.76%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMG has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their target price for the company from $35.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of 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 report on Tuesday, July 15th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Warner Music Group to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $38.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Warner Music Group currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $33.72.

Warner Music Group Profile

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.