Warner Music Group Corp. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.18 (NASDAQ:WMG)

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 14th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 24th will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share on Tuesday, March 4th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.98%.

Warner Music Group has raised its dividend payment by an average of 9.0% per year over the last three years. Warner Music Group has a dividend payout ratio of 47.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Warner Music Group to earn $1.61 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 44.7%.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WMG opened at $36.30 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $18.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.65. Warner Music Group has a 1-year low of $27.06 and a 1-year high of $36.81. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $31.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $30.94.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (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, sell-side analysts expect that Warner Music Group will post 1.3 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Warner Music Group

In related news, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.96, for a total transaction of $1,083,600.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 242,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,503,465.60. The trade was a 12.62 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 72.21% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WMG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price target on Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Macquarie reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 25th. UBS Group decreased their price objective 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Warner Music Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $35.81.

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.