Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC Has $245.53 Million Stock Holdings in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 43.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,920,342 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,400,500 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC owned 1.53% of Warner Music Group worth $245,531,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 1,404 shares during the period. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 14.0% during the fourth quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 3,705 shares of the company’s stock valued at $115,000 after acquiring an additional 455 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 3,967 shares of the company’s stock worth $123,000 after purchasing an additional 458 shares during the period. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $218,000. 96.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. FBN Securities assumed coverage on Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $35.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Citigroup raised Warner Music Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $34.00 to $42.00 in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.76.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,103 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.49, for a total value of $40,248.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 88,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,234,802.01. This represents a 1.23 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Valentin Blavatnik sold 28,230 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.45, for a total transaction of $1,000,753.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly 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. 72.21% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Warner Music Group Stock Down 2.2 %

WMG stock opened at $31.56 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $33.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $32.02. The company has a market cap of $16.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.33. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 52 week low of $27.06 and a 52 week high of $36.64. 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 (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.11. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 79.01%. On average, research analysts expect that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 24th were given a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 24th. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 73.47%.

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.