Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Price Target Cut to $30.00 by Analysts at Macquarie

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) had its target price cut by Macquarie from $32.00 to $30.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on WMG. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Warner Music Group from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on Warner Music Group from $42.00 to $36.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Redburn Atlantic reissued a sell rating and set a $23.00 target price (up previously from $21.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, July 12th. They issued an outperform rating and a $37.00 price target for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $36.17.

Warner Music Group Trading Up 0.5 %

Warner Music Group stock opened at $31.14 on Friday. Warner Music Group has a 1 year low of $27.06 and a 1 year high of $38.05. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $29.44 and its 200-day moving average is $30.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.26, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.69. The company has a market cap of $16.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.94, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.38.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.02. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 101.32% and a net margin of 8.56%. The company had revenue of $1.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.58 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that Warner Music Group will post 1.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Warner Music Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 27th. This is an increase from Warner Music Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is presently 69.23%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Warner Music Group

In other news, CEO Max Lousada sold 428,834 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 owns 2,289,771 shares in the company, valued at $64,113,588. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 628,205 shares of company stock valued at $17,628,757. 73.35% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Warner Music Group

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WMG. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 74.5% in the second quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 953 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 5,790.5% in the 2nd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 1,237 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,216 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. bought a new stake in Warner Music Group in the first quarter worth $45,000. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group in the third quarter worth about $73,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group during the 1st quarter worth about $82,000. 96.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.