Warner Music Group (WMG) to Release Quarterly Earnings on Thursday

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) is set to issue its quarterly earnings data before the market opens on Thursday, November 21st. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $0.28 per share for the quarter. Parties that wish to register for the company’s conference call can do so using this link.

Warner Music Group Trading Up 1.3 %

NASDAQ WMG opened at $33.34 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $17.27 billion, a PE ratio of 32.06, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.37. Warner Music Group has a 12 month low of $27.06 and a 12 month high of $38.05. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $31.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $30.69. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.26.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 19th will be paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 19th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.16%. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 69.23%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WMG has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Tigress Financial dropped their price target on Warner Music Group from $52.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Macquarie cut their price target on Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $42.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $30.00 target price (down previously from $33.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.17.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Max Lousada sold 428,834 shares of Warner Music Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.00, for a total value of $12,007,352.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,289,771 shares in the company, valued at $64,113,588. This trade represents a 15.77 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 628,205 shares of company stock valued at $17,628,757. 73.35% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.