Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA Invests $864,000 in Warner Music Group Corp. $WMG

Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA purchased a new stake in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 25,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $864,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Covalis Capital LLP lifted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 203.1% in the 2nd quarter. Covalis Capital LLP now owns 566,627 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,435,000 after purchasing an additional 379,661 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 18.1% during the second quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 2,025,727 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,181,000 after purchasing an additional 310,698 shares during the period. Arlington Partners LLC bought a new stake in Warner Music Group in the second quarter valued at about $1,673,000. Perpetual Ltd lifted its stake in Warner Music Group by 5.3% in the second quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 660,531 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,993,000 after buying an additional 33,422 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 2.4% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 301,988 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,226,000 after buying an additional 6,989 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WMG. Wall Street Zen cut Warner Music Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Monday, November 24th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $39.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Zacks Research raised shares of Warner Music Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 21st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.94.

Warner Music Group Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of WMG stock opened at $30.95 on Tuesday. Warner Music Group Corp. has a twelve month low of $25.56 and a twelve month high of $36.64. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $29.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.21, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.25.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by ($0.14). The firm had revenue of $1.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 5.44% and a return on equity of 47.78%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.08 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 19th were issued a dividend of $0.19 per share. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 19th. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is presently 108.57%.

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.