42,600 Shares in Warner Music Group Corp. $WMG Acquired by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 42,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,088,000.

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

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

Shares of Warner Music Group stock opened at $28.28 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $14.75 billion, a PE ratio of 33.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 1.30. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $30.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.62. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 12 month low of $23.34 and a 12 month high of $35.42.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion for 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%.Warner Music Group’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.07 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Guggenheim increased their price target on Warner Music Group from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $43.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Warner Music Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Morgan Stanley set a $39.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Warner Music Group has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.38.

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.