State of Alaska Department of Revenue Acquires 1,115 Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

State of Alaska Department of Revenue raised its holdings in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 7.2% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 16,510 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,115 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue’s holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $516,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Blair William & Co. IL boosted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 154,747 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,110,000 after purchasing an additional 405 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its position in Warner Music Group by 74.5% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 953 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. OmniStar Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Warner Music Group by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. OmniStar Financial Group Inc. now owns 19,812 shares of the company’s stock valued at $607,000 after purchasing an additional 420 shares during the last quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC boosted its position in Warner Music Group by 2.8% in the second quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 17,548 shares of the company’s stock valued at $538,000 after buying an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 6.3% during the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 13,141 shares of the company’s stock worth $434,000 after buying an additional 773 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on Warner Music Group from $42.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Macquarie reduced their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 11th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, July 12th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $37.00 price target for the company. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $30.00 target price (down from $33.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Warner Music Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.17.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

Shares of Warner Music Group stock opened at $32.89 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $30.69 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $30.68. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 1-year low of $27.06 and a 1-year high of $38.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.26. The company has a market cap of $17.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.63, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.37.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.02. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 101.32% and a net margin of 8.56%. The company had revenue of $1.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.58 billion. As a group, analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.05 EPS for the current year.

Warner Music Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This is an increase from Warner Music Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 27th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.19%. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 69.23%.

Insider Activity

In other Warner Music Group news, CEO Max Lousada sold 428,834 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.00, for a total value of $12,007,352.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,289,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,113,588. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders sold 628,205 shares of company stock worth $17,628,757 in the last quarter. 73.35% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Warner Music Group

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.