Nomura Holdings Inc. Takes Position in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new position in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $716,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of WMG. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 1,263,690 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp acquired a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the fourth quarter worth about $1,664,000. Hahn Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group during the 4th quarter worth about $4,863,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $43,628,000. Finally, Comgest Global Investors S.A.S. increased its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 13.4% in the 4th quarter. Comgest Global Investors S.A.S. now owns 521,230 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,655,000 after purchasing an additional 61,673 shares in the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the company. Loop Capital raised their price objective on Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Guggenheim dropped their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Monday, May 6th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $43.00 price objective for the company. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.88.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

Shares of Warner Music Group stock opened at $30.40 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $31.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $33.79. The company has a market cap of $15.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.40, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.38. 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 Corp. has a one year low of $25.28 and a one year high of $38.05.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.07. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 120.42% and a net margin of 8.28%. The business had revenue of $1.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.06 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 0.99 EPS for the current year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 23rd were issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 22nd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.24%. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 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.