Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.20 Per Share

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, August 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share on Tuesday, September 1st. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This is a 5.3% increase from Warner Music Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19.

Warner Music Group has increased its dividend by an average of 0.4%annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 4 consecutive years. Warner Music Group has a payout ratio of 55.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Warner Music Group to earn $1.89 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.76 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 40.2%.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Shares of WMG stock opened at $26.00 on Thursday. Warner Music Group has a 12-month low of $23.34 and a 12-month high of $35.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 1.30. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $28.25 and a 200-day moving average of $28.75.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.17. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 62.01% and a net margin of 6.34%.The company had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.81 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.03) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Warner Music Group will post 1.56 earnings per share for the current year.

About Warner Music Group

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.