Guggenheim Lowers Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Price Target to $34.00

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) had its target price decreased by equities research analysts at Guggenheim from $37.00 to $34.00 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Guggenheim’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 31.99% from the company’s current price.

WMG has been the topic of several other reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Scotiabank upgraded Warner Music Group from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $36.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, March 27th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Warner Music Group has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $35.53.

Warner Music Group Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of Warner Music Group stock opened at $25.76 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $27.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $29.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.46 billion, a PE ratio of 44.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 1.28. Warner Music Group has a 52-week low of $23.34 and a 52-week high of $34.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.30, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.70.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $1.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.77 billion. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 4.43% and a return on equity of 38.33%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.45 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 12.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,914,577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $576,110,000 after purchasing an additional 1,837,801 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Warner Music Group by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 16,645,276 shares of the company’s stock valued at $510,511,000 after buying an additional 2,200,362 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its position in Warner Music Group by 4.2% during the third quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 8,914,756 shares of the company’s stock valued at $303,637,000 after buying an additional 363,092 shares during the period. Darsana Capital Partners LP increased its holdings in Warner Music Group by 14.3% during the second quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 8,000,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $217,920,000 after buying an additional 1,000,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FIL Ltd increased its holdings in Warner Music Group by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 5,880,751 shares of the company’s stock valued at $180,363,000 after buying an additional 47,760 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Warner Music Group Company Profile

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.