Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Lowered to “Hold” Rating by Wall Street Zen

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

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on WMG. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Warner Music Group from $33.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Zacks Research raised Warner Music Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Monday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Warner Music Group has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $34.94.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WMG opened at $30.44 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.77. The company has a market capitalization of $15.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.49, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.25. Warner Music Group has a 12 month low of $25.56 and a 12 month high of $36.64. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $29.59 and a 200-day moving average of $30.86.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.35 by ($0.14). The business had revenue of $1.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 5.44% and a return on equity of 47.78%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.08 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Warner Music Group will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL bought a new stake in Warner Music Group during the third quarter worth about $9,705,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd raised its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 774.6% in the 3rd quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 1,207 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 1,069 shares in the last quarter. Stance Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,361,000. DigitalBridge Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 41.0% during the 3rd quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. now owns 1,136,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,704,000 after acquiring an additional 330,257 shares during the period. Finally, Dark Forest Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,688,000. Institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

About Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group is a major global music company that operates across recorded music and music publishing. Its recorded-music business comprises a portfolio of well-known labels—including Atlantic, Warner Records and Parlophone—as well as distribution and artist-services operations that support both established and emerging artists. The company’s publishing arm, Warner Chappell Music, manages songwriting catalogs and administers rights for compositions across multiple media, providing licensing for film, television, advertising and other commercial uses.

WMG’s activities span the full music value chain: signing and developing artists, producing and marketing recordings, distributing music through physical channels and streaming platforms, and monetizing rights through licensing, synchronization and neighboring-rights collection.