Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Upgraded by Wall Street Zen to Buy Rating

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

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, March 27th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $43.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, May 8th. Scotiabank raised shares of Warner Music Group from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley set a $39.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.38.

Warner Music Group Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:WMG opened at $28.46 on Friday. 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. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $30.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.17. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.62. Warner Music Group has a fifty-two week low of $23.34 and a fifty-two week high of $35.42.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.61 billion. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 6.34% and a return on equity of 62.01%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.07 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Warner Music Group will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Warner Music Group

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position 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 valued at $510,511,000 after buying an additional 2,200,362 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its position 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 valued at $108,435,000 after buying an additional 2,040,425 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position 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 valued at $576,110,000 after buying an additional 1,837,801 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its position 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 valued at $63,375,000 after buying an additional 1,824,596 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG raised its position 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 valued at $75,823,000 after buying an additional 1,180,256 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.