Brokerages Set Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Target Price at $35.81

Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) have been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the sixteen research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $35.81.

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Citigroup upgraded Warner Music Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $34.00 to $42.00 in a report on Friday, February 14th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Macquarie reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $30.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Warner Music Group

In other news, Director Valentin Blavatnik sold 28,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.45, for a total value of $1,000,753.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 68,264 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,419,958.80. This trade represents a 29.26 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,103 shares of Warner Music Group stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.49, for a total transaction of $40,248.47. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 88,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,234,802.01. This trade represents a 1.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 72.21% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WMG. DigitalBridge Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 29.7% in the fourth quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. now owns 896,445 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,790,000 after purchasing an additional 205,529 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 43.5% in the 4th quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 7,920,342 shares of the company’s stock valued at $245,531,000 after buying an additional 2,400,500 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP purchased a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the 4th quarter valued at $2,613,000. Two Sigma Investments LP acquired a new stake in Warner Music Group during the 4th quarter worth $5,545,000. Finally, State of Wyoming acquired a new stake in Warner Music Group during the 4th quarter worth $47,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Warner Music Group Stock Down 0.1 %

NASDAQ WMG opened at $32.44 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $32.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67. The firm has a market cap of $16.88 billion, a PE ratio of 33.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.33. Warner Music Group has a 52 week low of $27.06 and a 52 week high of $36.64.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.11. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 79.01%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 24th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 24th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.22%. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 73.47%.

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.