Brokerages Set Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Price Target at $35.73
by Tristan Rich · The Markets DailyShares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG – Get Free Report) have been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the nineteen ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and twelve have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $35.5333.
WMG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $36.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, March 27th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th.
Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on WMG
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Barclays PLC raised its position in Warner Music Group by 5,055.5% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,860,687 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,375,000 after purchasing an additional 1,824,596 shares during the period. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC grew its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 762.5% during the 3rd quarter. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC now owns 74,332 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,532,000 after purchasing an additional 65,714 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group during the 3rd quarter worth about $2,418,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 6,227.3% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 2,173,417 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,027,000 after purchasing an additional 2,139,067 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greenland Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Warner Music Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,556,000. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Warner Music Group Price Performance
WMG stock opened at $25.76 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.30, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $27.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.46 billion, a PE ratio of 44.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 1.28. Warner Music Group has a 1 year low of $23.34 and a 1 year high of $34.63.
Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $1.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.77 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 38.33% and a net margin of 4.43%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.45 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Warner Music Group Announces Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.19 per share. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 18th. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is presently 131.03%.
Warner Music Group Company Profile
Warner Music Group is a major global music company that operates across recorded music and music publishing. Its recorded-music business comprises a portfolio of well-known labels—including Atlantic, Warner Records and Parlophone—as well as distribution and artist-services operations that support both established and emerging artists. The company’s publishing arm, Warner Chappell Music, manages songwriting catalogs and administers rights for compositions across multiple media, providing licensing for film, television, advertising and other commercial uses.
WMG’s activities span the full music value chain: signing and developing artists, producing and marketing recordings, distributing music through physical channels and streaming platforms, and monetizing rights through licensing, synchronization and neighboring-rights collection.