Insider Selling: Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) EVP Sells 1,103 Shares of Stock

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,103 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.49, for a total value of $40,248.47. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 88,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,234,802.01. The trade was a 1.23 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Warner Music Group Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of WMG stock opened at $35.46 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $18.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.35. Warner Music Group Corp. has a one year low of $27.06 and a one year high of $36.64. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $31.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.11. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 79.01% and a net margin of 8.07%. Analysts predict that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 24th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.03%. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is presently 73.47%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WMG. Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 1,041.3% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 363,347 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,373,000 after acquiring an additional 331,511 shares during the period. Castleview Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Warner Music Group during the third quarter valued at $239,000. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 3.8% during the third quarter. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB now owns 1,090,238 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,124,000 after acquiring an additional 39,925 shares during the period. Pullen Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 67.6% during the third quarter. Pullen Investment Management LLC now owns 49,993 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,565,000 after acquiring an additional 20,160 shares during the period. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 7.2% during the third quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 16,510 shares of the company’s stock valued at $516,000 after acquiring an additional 1,115 shares during the period. 96.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on WMG. Citigroup upgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $34.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective 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, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $35.81.

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.