Lazard Asset Management LLC Trims Holdings in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

Lazard Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 2.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 600,442 shares of the company’s stock after selling 17,266 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC owned approximately 0.12% of Warner Music Group worth $19,826,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMG. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 87.1% during the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,713,747 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,125,000 after buying an additional 1,263,690 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp purchased a new stake in Warner Music Group in the fourth quarter valued at $1,664,000. Hahn Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the 4th quarter valued at $4,863,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Warner Music Group during the 4th quarter worth $43,628,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 289.8% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 92,930 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,066,000 after purchasing an additional 69,089 shares during the period. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on WMG. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Redburn Atlantic restated a “sell” rating and issued a $23.00 price objective (up from $21.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Warner Music Group in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $38.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, July 12th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $37.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $38.13.

Warner Music Group Stock Up 0.8 %

WMG stock opened at $29.83 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $30.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $33.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.83, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.38. Warner Music Group Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $28.89 and a fifty-two week high of $38.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.81, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.69.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.07. 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 8.28% and a return on equity of 120.42%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.06 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 23rd were paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 22nd. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.00%.

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.