Handelsbanken Fonder AB Acquires New Position in Warner Music Group Corp. $WMG

Handelsbanken Fonder AB acquired a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 30,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $925,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of WMG. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 6,227.3% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 2,173,417 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,027,000 after acquiring an additional 2,139,067 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 178.5% in the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,183,654 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,435,000 after buying an additional 2,040,425 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,914,577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $576,110,000 after buying an additional 1,837,801 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 5,055.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,860,687 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,375,000 after buying an additional 1,824,596 shares during the period. Finally, UBS Group AG grew its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 112.8% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 2,226,151 shares of the company’s stock valued at $75,823,000 after buying an additional 1,180,256 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on WMG shares. Guggenheim increased their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Scotiabank raised shares of Warner Music Group from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley set a $39.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $43.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.38.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WMG opened at $33.30 on Thursday. 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 has a market capitalization of $17.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.18, a PEG ratio of 0.51 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $29.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.19. Warner Music Group Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $23.34 and a fifty-two week high of $35.42.

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

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 26th will be given a dividend of $0.19 per share. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 26th. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 89.41%.

Warner Music Group Company Profile

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.