Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Given Buy Rating at Guggenheim

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by analysts at Guggenheim in a research report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $44.00 target price on the stock. Guggenheim’s target price suggests a potential upside of 38.58% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Barclays dropped 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. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.67.

Warner Music Group Trading Down 0.6 %

NASDAQ:WMG opened at $31.75 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.25, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.35. Warner Music Group has a 52 week low of $27.06 and a 52 week high of $38.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.95. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $32.05 and a 200 day moving average of $30.64.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued 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). The business had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 69.29% and a net margin of 6.77%. Warner Music Group’s revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.34 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group will post 1.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Max Lousada sold 428,834 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was 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 $64,113,588. The trade was a 15.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 73.35% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Aristeia Capital L.L.C. purchased a new stake in Warner Music Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $606,000. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 2,699.4% during the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 8,217,467 shares of the company’s stock worth $257,207,000 after purchasing an additional 7,923,926 shares in the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd acquired a new position in Warner Music Group in the 3rd quarter valued at $15,766,000. Amalgamated Bank purchased a new position in Warner Music Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,956,000. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its stake in Warner Music Group by 355.3% during the 3rd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 44,337 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,388,000 after purchasing an additional 34,599 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

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.