Corient Private Wealth LLC Takes $218,000 Position in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

Corient Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 7,022 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $218,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Warner Music Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 379.5% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,774 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 1,404 shares during the period. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton boosted its position in Warner Music Group by 14.0% during the fourth quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 3,705 shares of the company’s stock worth $115,000 after acquiring an additional 455 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 3,967 shares of the company’s stock worth $123,000 after acquiring an additional 458 shares during the period. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Warner Music Group in the 3rd quarter valued at $304,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Valentin Blavatnik sold 28,230 shares of Warner Music Group stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.45, for a total transaction of $1,000,753.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 68,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,419,958.80. The trade was a 29.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,103 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.49, for a total value of $40,248.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 88,649 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,234,802.01. This trade represents a 1.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 72.21% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

Shares of WMG stock opened at $31.32 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67. The company has a market cap of $16.30 billion, a PE ratio of 31.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.33. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $33.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.08. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 52 week low of $27.06 and a 52 week high of $36.64.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.11. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 79.01% and a net margin of 8.07%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Monday, February 24th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.30%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 24th. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 73.47%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on WMG. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Warner Music Group from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $34.00 to $42.00 in a report on Friday, February 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.76.

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.