Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Earns “Neutral” Rating from Macquarie

Macquarie restated their neutral rating on shares of Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $30.00 price target on the stock.

WMG has been the topic of several other research reports. Loop Capital lowered their price target on Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 25th. Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $44.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and set a $30.00 price target (down from $33.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, October 4th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Warner Music Group from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.31.

Warner Music Group Stock Up 2.4 %

Warner Music Group stock opened at $32.23 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.95. The company has a market capitalization of $16.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.83, a P/E/G ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.35. Warner Music Group has a 1-year low of $27.06 and a 1-year high of $38.05. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.76.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.20). The company had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 69.29% and a net margin of 6.77%. Warner Music Group’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.34 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Warner Music Group will post 1.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 19th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 19th. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 86.75%.

Insider Transactions at Warner Music Group

In other Warner Music Group news, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.96, for a total value of $1,083,600.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 242,360 shares in the company, valued at $7,503,465.60. This represents a 12.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 72.21% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Warner Music Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Concord Wealth Partners bought a new position in Warner Music Group during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 9,400.0% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,235 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 1,222 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 379.5% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,774 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after acquiring an additional 1,404 shares in the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Warner Music Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $73,000. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton increased its holdings in Warner Music Group by 14.0% during the 4th quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 3,705 shares of the company’s stock valued at $115,000 after purchasing an additional 455 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

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.