Pacer Advisors Inc. Has $1.25 Million Stock Position in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

Pacer Advisors Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 6.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 40,417 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,844 shares during the quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $1,253,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 37.1% in the 3rd 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. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 2,699.4% in the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 8,217,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $257,207,000 after purchasing an additional 7,923,926 shares during the last quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. increased its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 91.5% during the third quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. now owns 5,264,498 shares of the company’s stock worth $164,779,000 after purchasing an additional 2,514,715 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,628,263 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,284,000 after purchasing an additional 49,166 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in Warner Music Group by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,247,719 shares of the company’s stock valued at $70,354,000 after purchasing an additional 10,222 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on WMG shares. Macquarie reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays cut their target price 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. Citigroup boosted their price target on Warner Music Group from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Warner Music Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.31.

Warner Music Group Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ WMG opened at $31.80 on Monday. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 12-month low of $27.06 and a 12-month 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 market cap of $16.47 billion, a PE ratio of 38.31, a P/E/G ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.35. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $30.76.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its 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 firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.34 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.31 earnings per share 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 of this dividend was Tuesday, November 19th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.26%. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 86.75%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 242,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 can be accessed through this hyperlink. 72.21% of the stock is currently 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.