Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Price Target Cut to $30.00

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) had its target price lowered by equities research analysts at Macquarie from $32.00 to $30.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the stock. Macquarie’s price objective would suggest a potential downside of 3.66% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on WMG. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, July 12th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $37.00 price objective for the company. Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and set a $30.00 price objective (down from $33.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Tigress Financial lowered their target price 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. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered 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 note on Tuesday, August 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.17.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WMG opened at $31.14 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $30.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.26. Warner Music Group has a 52 week low of $27.06 and a 52 week high of $38.05.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.02. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 8.56% and a return on equity of 101.32%. The business had revenue of $1.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that Warner Music Group will post 1.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Warner Music Group news, CEO Max Lousada sold 428,834 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.00, for a total transaction of $12,007,352.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,289,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,113,588. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 628,205 shares of company stock valued at $17,628,757. 73.35% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Warner Music Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of WMG. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 41.7% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,201,194 shares of the company’s stock worth $435,903,000 after purchasing an additional 3,881,684 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,861,877 shares of the company’s stock worth $391,679,000 after purchasing an additional 192,215 shares in the last quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 47.4% during 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. Independent Franchise Partners LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group during the 2nd quarter worth $160,156,000. Finally, FIL Ltd boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 85.6% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 5,198,892 shares of the company’s stock worth $186,068,000 after purchasing an additional 2,397,232 shares in the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.