Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Decreases Stake in Warner Music Group Corp. $WMG

Key Points

• Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund cut its Warner Music Group stake by 90.8% in the first quarter, selling 303,808 shares and retaining 30,813 shares valued at approximately $787,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds still own 96.88% of WMG.
• Analyst sentiment remains positive, with 14 Buy ratings and four Holds producing a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and a $38.43 price target. JPMorgan and UBS recently raised their targets to $43 and $42, respectively.
• Warner Music Group exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $0.44 in EPS and $1.73 billion in revenue, with revenue up 16.7% year over year. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.19, representing a 2.9% annualized yield.

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lowered its position in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG - Free Report) by 90.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 30,813 shares of the company's stock after selling 303,808 shares during the quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund's holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $787,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 15.2% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 16,645,276 shares of the company's stock valued at $510,511,000 after buying an additional 2,200,362 shares during the period. FIL Ltd boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 5,880,751 shares of the company's stock worth $180,363,000 after buying an additional 47,760 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 22.0% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,885,483 shares of the company's stock worth $119,168,000 after acquiring an additional 701,829 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG grew its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 44.1% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,208,063 shares of the company's stock worth $98,391,000 after buying an additional 981,912 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 36.9% during the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 2,976,111 shares of the company's stock valued at $91,277,000 after acquiring an additional 802,694 shares in the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Evercore reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $43.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley set a $39.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, May 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $38.43.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

Shares of WMG stock opened at $25.96 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.62, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The firm has a market cap of $13.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.54, a PEG ratio of 0.38 and a beta of 1.30. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 1-year low of $23.34 and a 1-year high of $35.42. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $28.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.86.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.14. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 62.01% and a net margin of 6.34%.The business had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.61 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.07 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.52 EPS for the current year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 26th were given a $0.19 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 26th. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Warner Music Group's dividend payout ratio is presently 89.41%.

About Warner Music Group

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.

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