Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Increases Stake in Warner Music Group Corp. $WMG

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 36.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,976,111 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 802,694 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $91,277,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Warner Music Group by 12.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,914,577 shares of the company’s stock worth $576,110,000 after buying an additional 1,837,801 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its position in Warner Music Group by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 8,914,756 shares of the company’s stock worth $303,637,000 after buying an additional 363,092 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its position in Warner Music Group by 44.1% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,208,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $98,391,000 after buying an additional 981,912 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 2,040,425 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 1,824,596 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on WMG shares. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, May 8th. 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 report on Friday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.38.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WMG opened at $33.43 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $17.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.33, a PEG ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 1.25. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 52 week low of $23.34 and a 52 week high of $34.63. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $27.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $29.02. The company has a current ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.62.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion for 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 revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.07 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 26th will be paid 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 89.41%.

Warner Music Group 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.