Analysts Set Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Price Target at $36.92

Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have given a hold recommendation and eight have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $36.92.

WMG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $38.00 price objective on the stock. Redburn Atlantic restated a “sell” rating and set a $23.00 price objective (up previously from $21.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Tigress Financial dropped their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $52.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, July 12th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $37.00 target price for the company. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $42.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

Shares of WMG stock opened at $31.20 on Thursday. Warner Music Group has a 52 week low of $27.06 and a 52 week high of $38.05. The company has a market capitalization of $16.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.20, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $31.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.26, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.69.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 101.32% and a net margin of 8.56%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Warner Music Group will post 1.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Warner Music Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 27th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 27th. This is a positive change from Warner Music Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio is 72.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Warner Music Group news, CEO Max Lousada sold 64,047 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.25, for a total transaction of $1,809,327.75. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,909,422 shares in the company, valued at $82,191,171.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 628,205 shares of company stock worth $17,628,757 over the last ninety days. 73.35% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Warner Music Group

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMG. Independent Franchise Partners LLP purchased a new position in shares of Warner Music Group during the second quarter valued at about $160,156,000. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 41.7% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,201,194 shares of the company’s stock worth $435,903,000 after acquiring an additional 3,881,684 shares in the last quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. bought a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the second quarter worth approximately $84,281,000. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 47.4% in the 2nd quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 8,072,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $247,418,000 after purchasing an additional 2,594,994 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FIL Ltd lifted its stake in Warner Music Group by 85.6% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 5,198,892 shares of the company’s stock valued at $186,068,000 after acquiring an additional 2,397,232 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

About Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group Corp. operates as a music entertainment company in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and internationally. It operates through Recorded Music and Music Publishing segments. The Recorded Music segment is involved in the discovery and development of recording artists, as well as related marketing, promotion, distribution, sale, and licensing of music created by such recording artists; markets its music catalog through compilations and reissuances of previously released music and video titles, as well as previously unreleased materials; and conducts its operation primarily through a collection of record labels, such as Warner Records and Atlantic Records, as well as Asylum, Big Beat, Canvasback, East West, Erato, FFRR, Fueled by Ramen, Nonesuch, Parlophone, Reprise, Roadrunner, Sire, Spinnin’ Records, Warner Classics, and Warner Music Nashville.