Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Price Target Cut to $37.00 by Analysts at Guggenheim

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) had its price target decreased by Guggenheim from $40.00 to $37.00 in a research report report published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Guggenheim currently has a buy rating on the stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on WMG. UBS Group lowered their target price on 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. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Citigroup upgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $34.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Macquarie reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Warner Music Group has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.88.

Warner Music Group Stock Down 1.4 %

WMG stock opened at $27.31 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $30.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.68. Warner Music Group has a 52-week low of $26.34 and a 52-week high of $36.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.32.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.21). Warner Music Group had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 79.01%. The business had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.18 EPS. Warner Music Group’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Monday, February 24th were issued a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 24th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.64%. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 82.76%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Warner Music Group news, Director Valentin Blavatnik sold 28,230 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.45, for a total value of $1,000,753.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 68,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,419,958.80. This represents a 29.26 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,103 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.49, for a total transaction of $40,248.47. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 88,649 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,234,802.01. The trade was a 1.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 30,333 shares of company stock valued at $1,072,432 in the last quarter. Insiders own 72.21% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Warner Music Group

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 122.6% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 1,064 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 586 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise acquired a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the first quarter valued at $40,000. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd bought a new position in Warner Music Group in the fourth quarter worth $43,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in Warner Music Group by 101.5% during the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,453 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 732 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

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.