Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Receives $36.88 Average Target Price from Analysts

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the seventeen ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eleven have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $36.88.

WMG has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $17.00 to $21.00 in a report on Monday, February 5th. Guggenheim cut their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Loop Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th.

Warner Music Group Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ WMG opened at $33.43 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $17.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.46. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $33.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $34.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.50, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.70. Warner Music Group has a 52-week low of $23.62 and a 52-week high of $38.05.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $1.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 128.86%. Analysts expect that Warner Music Group will post 0.99 EPS for the current year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is presently 77.27%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Warner Music Group

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Mackenzie Financial Corp acquired a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,664,000. Hahn Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,863,000. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 1,711.7% during the third quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 903,241 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,362,000 after buying an additional 853,384 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 31.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 801,840 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,178,000 after buying an additional 193,221 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DigitalBridge Group Inc. grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 46.3% during the third quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. now owns 479,878 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,068,000 after buying an additional 151,778 shares in the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.