Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Earns Outperform Rating from Analysts at Wolfe Research

Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) in a research note released on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued an outperform rating and a $37.00 price target on the stock.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on WMG. Morgan Stanley started coverage on Warner Music Group in a report on Monday, May 6th. They issued an overweight rating and a $43.00 target price for the company. Redburn Atlantic reissued a sell rating and issued a $23.00 target price (up from $21.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Loop Capital boosted their target price on Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Warner Music Group in a research note on Thursday. They set a buy rating and a $38.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Guggenheim reduced their price objective on Warner Music Group from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $38.12.

Warner Music Group Stock Up 2.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ WMG opened at $30.91 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.81, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The business has a 50-day moving average of $31.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $33.32. Warner Music Group has a 1 year low of $28.30 and a 1 year high of $38.05.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.07. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 120.42% and a net margin of 8.28%. The business had revenue of $1.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.06 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Warner Music Group will post 1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 23rd were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 22nd. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 68.00%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Warner Music Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMG. Graham Capital Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $501,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,984,798 shares of the company’s stock worth $344,923,000 after buying an additional 302,892 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 9,224 shares of the company’s stock worth $330,000 after buying an additional 545 shares during the period. Simon Quick Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the 4th quarter worth $296,000. Finally, MJP Associates Inc. ADV raised its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV now owns 17,667 shares of the company’s stock worth $632,000 after buying an additional 1,648 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

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.