Ardmore Road Asset Management LP Buys 322,640 Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. $WMG

Ardmore Road Asset Management LP increased its stake in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 61.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 843,836 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 322,640 shares during the period. Ardmore Road Asset Management LP’s holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $21,552,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd boosted its stake in 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 worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 1,069 shares during the period. Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. Osaic Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 480.9% in the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 1,493 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 1,236 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 355.7% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,531 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 1,195 shares during the period. Finally, US Bancorp DE boosted its position 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. 96.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $43.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, May 8th. UBS Group upped their price target on Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Zacks Research cut shares of Warner Music Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Warner Music Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 18th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $38.43.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

WMG opened at $26.55 on Monday. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 52-week low of $23.34 and a 52-week high of $35.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.85 billion, a PE ratio of 31.24, a PEG ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.62, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.73. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $29.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.95.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.07 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 26th were issued a $0.19 dividend. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 26th. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 89.41%.

Warner Music Group 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.