Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Has $28.32 Million Stake in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 904,777 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,752 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $28,320,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its stake in Warner Music Group by 74.5% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 953 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the period. OmniStar Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Warner Music Group by 2.2% during 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 period. Capital City Trust Co. FL boosted its stake in Warner Music Group by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Capital City Trust Co. FL now owns 10,422 shares of the company’s stock valued at $326,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the period. Sage Rhino Capital LLC boosted its stake in Warner Music Group by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 17,548 shares of the company’s stock valued at $538,000 after purchasing an additional 473 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in Warner Music Group by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 20,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $649,000 after purchasing an additional 643 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Warner Music Group stock opened at $31.94 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.95, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The company has a market capitalization of $16.54 billion, a PE ratio of 38.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.35. Warner Music Group Corp. has a one year low of $27.06 and a one year high of $38.05. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $32.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.63.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.20). Warner Music Group had a net margin of 6.77% and a return on equity of 69.29%. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.34 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 19th were paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 19th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.25%. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 86.75%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Max Lousada sold 428,834 shares of Warner Music Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.00, for a total transaction of $12,007,352.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,289,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,113,588. The trade was a 15.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 73.35% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on WMG shares. Macquarie restated a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays reduced their price objective on Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $44.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Warner Music Group from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $30.00 price objective (down previously from $33.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.67.

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.