Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.11 EPS

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.11, Zacks reports. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 6.77% and a return on equity of 69.29%.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ WMG traded up $0.01 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $32.11. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,202,886 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,916,192. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.76. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.95. The stock has a market cap of $16.63 billion, a PE ratio of 38.69, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.35. Warner Music Group has a 52 week low of $27.06 and a 52 week high of $38.05.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 19th were given a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 19th. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 86.75%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Loop Capital cut their price target on Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on 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. UBS Group reduced their target price 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. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.31.

Insider Activity

In other Warner Music Group news, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.96, for a total transaction of $1,083,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 242,360 shares in the company, valued at $7,503,465.60. This trade represents a 12.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 72.21% of the company’s stock.

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.