Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Raised to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. UBS Group set a $33.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday. Zacks Research cut shares of Warner Music Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.88.

Warner Music Group Stock Up 3.4%

WMG stock opened at $30.69 on Friday. Warner Music Group has a one year low of $25.56 and a one year high of $36.64. The firm has a market cap of $16.00 billion, a PE ratio of 53.84, a PEG ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.30. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $32.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $30.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.37, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 0.66.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 20th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.35 by ($0.14). Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 39.95% and a net margin of 4.59%.The business had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.08 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 14.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in Warner Music Group by 57.5% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 879 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 321 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 23.5% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,729 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,000 after buying an additional 329 shares during the period. Keystone Financial Services raised its holdings in Warner Music Group by 3.7% in the second quarter. Keystone Financial Services now owns 9,619 shares of the company’s stock valued at $262,000 after acquiring an additional 342 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in Warner Music Group by 1.1% in the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 34,350 shares of the company’s stock worth $936,000 after acquiring an additional 358 shares during the last quarter. Finally, USS Investment Management Ltd grew its holdings in Warner Music Group by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd now owns 29,448 shares of the company’s stock worth $924,000 after acquiring an additional 387 shares in the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.