Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.07 EPS

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG - Get Free Report) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The company reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.07, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $1.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 128.86%. Warner Music Group's revenue for the quarter was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.06 EPS.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Shares of WMG stock traded down $0.92 on Friday, hitting $31.65. 3,252,553 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,565,844. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.50, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.67. Warner Music Group has a 52 week low of $23.62 and a 52 week high of $38.05. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.11. The firm has a market cap of $16.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.60, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.43.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.15%. Warner Music Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 77.27%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Loop Capital upped their price objective on Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their target price for the company from $17.00 to $21.00 in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Guggenheim reduced their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Monday. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $43.00 target price for the company. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Warner Music Group has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $37.18.

Warner Music Group Company 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.