Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Receives Buy Rating from Guggenheim

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by Guggenheim in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $44.00 price objective on the stock. Guggenheim’s target price points to a potential upside of 38.15% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on WMG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Tigress Financial reduced their price target on Warner Music Group from $52.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $30.00 price target (down from $33.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, October 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Warner Music Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.00.

Warner Music Group Stock Up 2.1 %

WMG stock opened at $31.85 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.95, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Max Lousada sold 428,834 shares of Warner Music Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.00, for a total value of $12,007,352.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,289,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,113,588. The trade was a 15.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders sold a total of 628,205 shares of company stock worth $17,628,757 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 73.35% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its stake in Warner Music Group by 74.5% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 953 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Concord Wealth Partners purchased a new position in Warner Music Group during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. ORG Partners LLC boosted its stake in Warner Music Group by 5,790.5% during the second quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 1,237 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 1,216 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in Warner Music Group by 9,400.0% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,235 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 1,222 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group in the 3rd quarter worth $73,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% 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.