Brokerages Set Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) PT at $37.38

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the nineteen research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and fourteen have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $37.8667.

Several research firms have issued reports on WMG. Zacks Research lowered shares of Warner Music Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Warner Music Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

NASDAQ:WMG opened at $28.99 on Wednesday. Warner Music Group has a 52-week low of $23.34 and a 52-week high of $35.42. The company has a market cap of $15.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.11, a P/E/G ratio of 0.43 and a beta of 1.30. 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $30.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.13.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.61 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 62.01% and a net margin of 6.34%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.07 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Warner Music Group will post 1.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 26th were issued a dividend of $0.19 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 26th. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is presently 89.41%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Warner Music Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMG. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd lifted its position in Warner Music Group by 774.6% during the third quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 1,207 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 1,069 shares during the last quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. lifted its position in Warner Music Group by 480.9% during the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 1,493 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 1,236 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 355.7% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,531 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 1,195 shares during the period. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 740.0% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,890 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 1,665 shares during the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.