Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Stock Holdings Increased by Exchange Traded Concepts LLC

Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 84.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 31,616 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,507 shares during the quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC’s holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $980,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WMG. Perpetual Ltd boosted its position in Warner Music Group by 25.6% during the fourth quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 632,454 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,606,000 after purchasing an additional 128,735 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group during the 4th quarter worth about $1,223,000. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton lifted its holdings 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 lifted 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 worth $55,000 after buying an additional 1,404 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 2,370,973 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Warner Music Group

In other news, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.96, for a total value of $1,083,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 242,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,503,465.60. The trade was a 12.62 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 73.35% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMG has been the subject of several research reports. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on Warner Music Group from $44.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. 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. Macquarie reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $30.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.31.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Shares of WMG stock opened at $31.58 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.95. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 12 month low of $27.06 and a 12 month high of $38.05. The firm has a market cap of $16.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.05, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.35. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $31.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.75.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last posted 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 return on equity of 69.29% and a net margin of 6.77%. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.34 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.31 EPS for the current year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 19th were given a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 19th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.28%. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 86.75%.

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.