Evercore ISI Cuts Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Price Target to $35.00

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) had its target price trimmed by Evercore ISI from $36.00 to $35.00 in a research report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on WMG. Guggenheim dropped their price target on Warner Music Group from $44.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Tigress Financial dropped their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $52.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $30.00 price target (down previously from $33.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, October 4th. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Warner Music Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.69.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WMG opened at $29.34 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.77. 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 stock has a market cap of $15.20 billion, a PE ratio of 35.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.35. Warner Music Group has a fifty-two week low of $27.06 and a fifty-two week high of $38.05.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.20). The company 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.34 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Warner Music Group will post 1.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 19th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 19th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 86.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Warner Music Group news, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.96, for a total transaction of $1,083,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 242,360 shares in the company, valued at $7,503,465.60. This represents a 12.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 73.35% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. boosted 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 worth $257,207,000 after buying an additional 7,923,926 shares during the period. Independent Franchise Partners LLP acquired a new position in Warner Music Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $160,156,000. D1 Capital Partners L.P. purchased a new position in Warner Music Group in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $84,281,000. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP grew its position in Warner Music Group by 47.4% in the second quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 8,072,372 shares of the company’s stock valued at $247,418,000 after acquiring an additional 2,594,994 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 2,370,973 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

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.