Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $37.3750.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on WMG. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, May 8th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley set a $39.00 price objective on Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on Warner Music Group from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, June 13th.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

WMG opened at $28.17 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.62, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.73. Warner Music Group has a fifty-two week low of $23.34 and a fifty-two week high of $35.42. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $30.59 and its 200 day moving average is $29.18. The stock has a market cap of $14.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 1.27.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.07 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Warner Music Group will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 26th were issued a $0.19 dividend. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 26th. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is currently 89.41%.

Institutional Trading of Warner Music Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WMG. Royal Bank of Canada increased its holdings in Warner Music Group by 10.2% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 77,162 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,420,000 after acquiring an additional 7,119 shares during the last quarter. Amundi boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 120.7% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 7,496 shares of the company’s stock valued at $232,000 after acquiring an additional 4,100 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 948,741 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,743,000 after acquiring an additional 50,035 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 23.2% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 193,434 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,269,000 after acquiring an additional 36,380 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 293.4% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 638,144 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,287,000 after acquiring an additional 475,929 shares during the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Warner Music Group

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.