Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, fourteen have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $37.3750.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on WMG shares. Morgan Stanley set a $39.00 target price on Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $43.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Warner Music Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Warner Music Group stock opened at $28.46 on Friday. Warner Music Group has a 12 month low of $23.34 and a 12 month high of $35.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.62. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $30.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.17. The company has a market cap of $14.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.48, a PEG ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 1.27.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.61 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 62.01% and a net margin of 6.34%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.07 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Warner Music Group will post 1.52 EPS for the current year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 26th were given a dividend of $0.19 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 26th. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 89.41%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WMG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 15.2% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 16,645,276 shares of the company’s stock worth $510,511,000 after purchasing an additional 2,200,362 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 178.5% in the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,183,654 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,435,000 after purchasing an additional 2,040,425 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 12.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,914,577 shares of the company’s stock worth $576,110,000 after purchasing an additional 1,837,801 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 5,055.5% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,860,687 shares of the company’s stock worth $63,375,000 after purchasing an additional 1,824,596 shares during the period. Finally, UBS Group AG increased its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 112.8% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 2,226,151 shares of the company’s stock worth $75,823,000 after purchasing an additional 1,180,256 shares during the period. 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.