Morgan Stanley Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Stock Price

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) had its price objective lowered by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $38.00 to $37.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 25.00% from the stock’s previous close.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of 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. Bank of America reissued 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. Guggenheim reduced their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $44.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Citigroup upped 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. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.31.

Warner Music Group Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ WMG opened at $29.60 on Monday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $31.77 and a 200-day moving average of $30.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.95, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.65. Warner Music Group has a 12 month low of $27.06 and a 12 month high of $38.05. The company has a market cap of $15.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.66, a P/E/G ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.35.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced 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 company had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 6.77% and a return on equity of 69.29%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.34 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Warner Music Group will post 1.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Warner Music Group

In other Warner Music Group news, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.96, for a total transaction of $1,083,600.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 242,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,503,465.60. This represents a 12.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 73.35% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Warner Music Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group in the 4th quarter worth about $1,223,000. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton grew its position in Warner Music Group by 14.0% in the 4th quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 3,705 shares of the company’s stock worth $115,000 after purchasing an additional 455 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 379.5% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,774 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 1,404 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 37.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,754,504 shares of the company’s stock valued at $274,016,000 after buying an additional 2,370,973 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 23.9% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 424,083 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,274,000 after buying an additional 81,799 shares during the period. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.