Cooke & Bieler LP Lowers Stock Position in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

Cooke & Bieler LP lowered its holdings in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG - Free Report) by 2.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,751,655 shares of the company's stock after selling 139,524 shares during the quarter. Warner Music Group comprises approximately 1.8% of Cooke & Bieler LP's investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Cooke & Bieler LP owned about 1.11% of Warner Music Group worth $180,314,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 122.6% during the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 1,064 shares of the company's stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 586 shares during the last quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd purchased a new position in Warner Music Group during the 4th quarter worth $43,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 101.5% during the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,453 shares of the company's stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 732 shares during the last quarter. State of Wyoming purchased a new position in Warner Music Group during the 4th quarter worth $47,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 71.4% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,040 shares of the company's stock worth $95,000 after buying an additional 1,266 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.88% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Warner Music Group from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $30.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price target for the stock from $35.00 to $28.00 in a report on Monday, May 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $33.72.

Warner Music Group Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:WMG traded down $0.05 during trading on Friday, reaching $31.22. 1,716,302 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,769,328. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.89, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.24. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 52-week low of $25.56 and a 52-week high of $36.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.43. The business's fifty day moving average is $27.47 and its 200-day moving average is $30.10.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). The company had revenue of $1.48 billion for 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%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.18 EPS. As a group, 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 27th were paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. Warner Music Group's payout ratio is 82.76%.

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.