Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Receives Consensus Rating of "Hold" from Brokerages

Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the seventeen research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation and nine have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $34.88.

A number of brokerages have commented on WMG. UBS Group decreased their price target on Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $38.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. FBN Securities assumed coverage on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, March 28th. They issued a "sector perform" rating and a $35.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped 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 research report on Friday. Citigroup upgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $34.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $31.00 to $28.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Friday.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.43, for a total value of $31,430.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 87,649 shares in the company, valued at $2,754,808.07. The trade was a 1.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Valentin Blavatnik sold 28,230 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.45, for a total transaction of $1,000,753.50. Following the sale, the director now owns 68,264 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,419,958.80. This represents a 29.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 30,333 shares of company stock worth $1,072,432. 72.21% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 37.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,754,504 shares of the company's stock valued at $274,016,000 after purchasing an additional 2,370,973 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 7,659.8% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 95,833 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,971,000 after buying an additional 94,598 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 953,549 shares of the company's stock worth $29,560,000 after buying an additional 48,772 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its stake in Warner Music Group by 84.8% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 31,616 shares of the company's stock worth $980,000 after buying an additional 14,507 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hahn Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Warner Music Group by 31.3% during the fourth quarter. Hahn Capital Management LLC now owns 255,101 shares of the company's stock valued at $7,908,000 after acquiring an additional 60,882 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company's stock.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Shares of WMG stock traded down $0.39 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $27.31. 1,758,721 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,940,615. The company has a market capitalization of $14.21 billion, a PE ratio of 27.87, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67. Warner Music Group has a 12-month low of $26.34 and a 12-month high of $36.64. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $30.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.68.

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 for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.21). Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 79.01% and a net margin of 8.07%. The business had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.52 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.18 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Monday, February 24th were paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.64%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 24th. Warner Music Group's payout ratio is currently 82.76%.

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.