Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Receives $35.76 Average Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty-one research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have issued a hold recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $35.7647.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America increased their target price on Warner Music Group from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Citigroup increased their target price on Warner Music Group from $33.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on Warner Music Group from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Barclays lifted their target price on Warner Music Group from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Warner Music Group from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Warner Music Group

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 36.6% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 15,296,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $479,552,000 after buying an additional 4,097,688 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 10.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,379,667 shares of the company’s stock valued at $450,803,000 after buying an additional 1,316,979 shares during the last quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 127.0% during the first quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 13,378,864 shares of the company’s stock valued at $419,427,000 after buying an additional 7,483,839 shares during the last quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 14.3% during the second quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 8,000,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $217,920,000 after buying an additional 1,000,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 6,227.3% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 2,173,417 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,027,000 after buying an additional 2,139,067 shares during the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Warner Music Group Trading Down 1.5%

NASDAQ WMG opened at $30.36 on Friday. Warner Music Group has a 12 month low of $25.56 and a 12 month high of $36.64. The stock has a market cap of $15.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.26, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.32. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $33.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $30.40. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.37.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by ($0.30). Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 39.95% and a net margin of 4.59%.The company had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Warner Music Group will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 20th were given a dividend of $0.19 per share. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. This is a boost from Warner Music Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 20th. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 133.33%.

Warner Music Group Company Profile

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.