Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Receives $38.43 Consensus PT from Analysts

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eighteen brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and fourteen have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $38.4286.

WMG has been the topic of several recent research reports. Guggenheim boosted 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 report on Friday, May 8th. Zacks Research downgraded Warner Music Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $39.00 price target on Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, May 8th.

Warner Music Group Trading Up 2.8%

NASDAQ WMG opened at $25.80 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. The firm has a market cap of $13.46 billion, a PE ratio of 30.35, a P/E/G ratio of 0.36 and a beta of 1.30. Warner Music Group has a one year low of $23.34 and a one year high of $35.42. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $28.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $28.78.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.14. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 6.34% and a return on equity of 62.01%. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.61 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.07 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Warner Music Group will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 26th were paid a $0.19 dividend. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 26th. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is currently 89.41%.

Institutional Trading of Warner Music Group

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Daytona Street Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Warner Music Group during the fourth quarter worth about $1,940,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Warner Music Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,867,000. UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 44.1% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,208,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $98,391,000 after purchasing an additional 981,912 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 29.3% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 423,049 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,975,000 after purchasing an additional 95,956 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. increased its position in Warner Music Group by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 396,808 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,170,000 after purchasing an additional 46,482 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Warner Music Group

Here are the key news stories impacting Warner Music Group this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Warner Music reported preliminary fiscal third-quarter results that exceeded expectations, with revenue reportedly rising about 10% year over year. Double-digit streaming growth was a key contributor. Warner Music Group’s FQ3 preliminary results beat expectations
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised or provided stronger-than-expected third-quarter guidance, calling for EPS of approximately $0.51 versus consensus of $0.39 and revenue of about $1.9 billion versus estimates of $1.8 billion.
• Positive Sentiment: Recorded-music subscription streaming revenue increased 11% year over year in calendar second quarter, suggesting Warner continues to benefit from recurring digital revenue and subscriber growth. Warner Music Group and its CFO didn’t part ways because of a dud quarter
• Neutral Sentiment: The company moved its earnings release forward to August 5 from August 6 and scheduled its conference call for 4:30 p.m. ET. The earlier disclosure may give investors more clarity on results and the executive transition. Warner Music Group earnings conference call announcement
• Negative Sentiment: CFO Bryan Castellani and COO Carianne Burfitt departed after about a year, creating leadership uncertainty and raising questions about the timing and circumstances of the executive shakeup. Reports indicated the departures were not attributed to a weak quarter, while subscription revenue and preliminary results remained solid. Warner Music CFO, COO departs after a year

Warner Music Group Company Profile

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.