Warner Music Group Corp. (WMG) To Go Ex-Dividend on May 26th

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 7th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 26th will be paid a dividend of 0.19 per share on Tuesday, June 2nd. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 26th.

Warner Music Group has raised 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% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Warner Music Group to earn $1.84 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 41.3%.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

Shares of WMG stock opened at $34.72 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $18.11 billion, a PE ratio of 40.85, a P/E/G ratio of 0.51 and a beta of 1.25. Warner Music Group has a 12 month low of $23.34 and a 12 month high of $35.42. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $28.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.62.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.14. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 6.34% and a return on equity of 62.01%. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.61 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.07 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Warner Music Group will post 1.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Warner Music Group

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WMG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 15.2% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 16,645,276 shares of the company’s stock valued at $510,511,000 after acquiring an additional 2,200,362 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 6,227.3% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 2,173,417 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,027,000 after acquiring an additional 2,139,067 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 178.5% in the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,183,654 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,435,000 after acquiring an additional 2,040,425 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 12.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,914,577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $576,110,000 after acquiring an additional 1,837,801 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 5,055.5% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,860,687 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,375,000 after acquiring an additional 1,824,596 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

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.