Mawer Investment Management Ltd. Reduces Stock Position in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

Key Points

• Mawer Investment Management Ltd. reduced its holdings in Warner Music Group by 3.8%, selling 309,791 shares, while still retaining approximately 1.2% of its investment portfolio in the company.
• Warner Music Group recently reported earnings per share of $0.07, missing expectations of $0.28, alongside a net revenue of $1.48 billion, which fell short of estimates.
• The company has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.18, with a dividend yield of 2.32%, highlighting a payout ratio of 82.76%.

Mawer Investment Management Ltd. lessened its position in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG - Free Report) by 3.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,883,786 shares of the company's stock after selling 309,791 shares during the period. Warner Music Group accounts for 1.2% of Mawer Investment Management Ltd.'s holdings, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. owned about 1.52% of Warner Music Group worth $247,157,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Warner Music Group by 2.9% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 326,449 shares of the company's stock worth $10,234,000 after buying an additional 9,103 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Warner Music Group by 5,272.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 95,304 shares of the company's stock worth $3,040,000 after purchasing an additional 93,530 shares during the period. DigitalBridge Group Inc. grew its holdings in Warner Music Group by 29.7% in the fourth quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. now owns 896,445 shares of the company's stock worth $27,790,000 after purchasing an additional 205,529 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its holdings in Warner Music Group by 88.0% in the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 59,437 shares of the company's stock worth $1,863,000 after purchasing an additional 27,821 shares during the period. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its holdings in Warner Music Group by 43.5% in the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 7,920,342 shares of the company's stock worth $245,531,000 after purchasing an additional 2,400,500 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.88% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on WMG. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $30.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Warner Music Group to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. UBS Group reduced their price objective 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. Finally, Barclays lifted 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 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $33.72.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

WMG stock traded down $0.56 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $28.70. The company had a trading volume of 1,128,210 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,839,398. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $28.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $30.12. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 12 month low of $25.56 and a 12 month high of $36.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.43, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market cap of $14.96 billion, a PE ratio of 33.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.24.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.52 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.18 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were issued a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Warner Music Group's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.