Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Given Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Key Points

• Warner Music Group Corp. has an average analyst rating of "Moderate Buy", with ten analysts recommending a hold, eight a buy, and one a strong buy, along with a twelve-month price target averaging $33.88.
• Recent institutional investor activity includes Itau Unibanco growing its stake by 122.6%, and 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and institutional investors.
• Warner Music recently increased its quarterly dividend to $0.19, yielding approximately 2.3%, while announcing a $1.69 billion revenue for the last quarter, exceeding estimates.

Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG - Get Free Report) have earned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the nineteen ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $33.8824.

WMG has been the topic of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $30.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Warner Music Group from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $28.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMG. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its position 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. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise purchased a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group during the first quarter valued at approximately $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 101.5% in the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,453 shares of the company's stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 732 shares during the last quarter. State of Wyoming purchased a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the fourth quarter worth $47,000. Finally, CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 528.0% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,884 shares of the company's stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 1,584 shares during the period. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

Shares of Warner Music Group stock opened at $32.53 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.37. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $29.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $30.17. Warner Music Group has a 1-year low of $25.56 and a 1-year high of $36.64. The company has a market cap of $16.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.07, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.26.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.27 by ($0.30). The company had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 39.95% and a net margin of 4.59%. Warner Music Group's revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.27 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Warner Music Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 20th will be given a $0.19 dividend. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. This is a boost from Warner Music Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 20th. Warner Music Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 126.32%.

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.

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