JPMorgan Chase & Co. Sells 431,238 Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. $WMG

JPMorgan Chase & Co. trimmed its position in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 2.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 14,444,914 shares of the company’s stock after selling 431,238 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $491,994,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Darsana Capital Partners LP boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 14.3% in the second quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 8,000,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $217,920,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000,000 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in Warner Music Group by 6,227.3% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 2,173,417 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,027,000 after purchasing an additional 2,139,067 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership lifted its position in Warner Music Group by 18.1% during the 2nd quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 2,025,727 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,181,000 after purchasing an additional 310,698 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,485,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,147,326 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,253,000 after buying an additional 11,566 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Warner Music Group Trading Down 0.9%

NASDAQ:WMG opened at $29.25 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $29.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.06. Warner Music Group Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $25.56 and a fifty-two week high of $36.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.30, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.28 billion, a PE ratio of 50.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.24.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $1.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.77 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 38.33% and a net margin of 4.43%.Warner Music Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.45 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of $0.19 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 131.03%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on WMG shares. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 21st. Wolfe Research restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $36.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. UBS Group set a $33.00 target price on Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, November 21st. Finally, Moffett Nathanson started coverage on Warner Music Group in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. They set a “buy” rating and a $38.00 target price on the stock. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Warner Music Group currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $35.69.

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.