Macquarie Reaffirms “Neutral” Rating for Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG)

Macquarie restated their neutral rating on shares of Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) in a research note released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $30.00 price target on the stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on WMG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Tigress Financial dropped their target price on Warner Music Group from $52.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Barclays reduced their price target on Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $44.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $30.00 target price (down previously from $33.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, October 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.00.

Warner Music Group Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of Warner Music Group stock opened at $31.85 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.95, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.37, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.37. Warner Music Group has a 52-week low of $27.06 and a 52-week high of $38.05. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $30.62.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 19th. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 86.75%.

Insider Transactions at Warner Music Group

In other Warner Music Group news, CEO Max Lousada sold 135,324 shares of Warner Music Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.17, for a total value of $3,812,077.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,725,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $76,790,405.88. The trade was a 4.73 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In the last three months, insiders sold 628,205 shares of company stock worth $17,628,757. 73.35% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WMG. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its holdings in Warner Music Group by 74.5% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 953 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Concord Wealth Partners purchased a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group during the third quarter worth about $30,000. ORG Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 5,790.5% in the second quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 1,237 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,216 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in Warner Music Group by 9,400.0% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,235 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 1,222 shares during the period. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Warner Music Group during the 3rd quarter valued at about $73,000. 96.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Warner Music Group

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.