Guggenheim Cuts Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Price Target to $45.00

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG - Get Free Report) had its price objective lowered by stock analysts at Guggenheim from $46.00 to $45.00 in a research report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a "buy" rating on the stock. Guggenheim's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 35.01% from the company's previous close.

Separately, Redburn Atlantic raised Warner Music Group from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $17.00 to $21.00 in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $36.81.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Shares of WMG stock traded down $0.02 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $33.33. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,161,768 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,442,546. The firm's 50-day moving average is $34.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $33.80. The company has a market cap of $17.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.33, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.46. Warner Music Group has a 1-year low of $23.62 and a 1-year high of $38.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.50, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.70.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.13). The business had revenue of $1.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 128.86% and a net margin of 7.42%. On average, research analysts predict that Warner Music Group will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Warner Music Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 1.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,534,216 shares of the company's stock valued at $456,374,000 after buying an additional 202,147 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,669,662 shares of the company's stock valued at $417,657,000 after purchasing an additional 684,864 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 21.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 9,319,510 shares of the company's stock worth $333,545,000 after purchasing an additional 1,651,571 shares during the last quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP grew its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 47.9% during the second quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 6,060,863 shares of the company's stock worth $158,128,000 after purchasing an additional 1,963,856 shares during the period. Finally, FIL Ltd increased its holdings in Warner Music Group by 85.6% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 5,198,892 shares of the company's stock valued at $186,068,000 after purchasing an additional 2,397,232 shares during the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Warner Music Group

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.