State Street Corp Has $70.35 Million Stock Position in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 0.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,247,719 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,222 shares during the period. State Street Corp owned about 0.43% of Warner Music Group worth $70,354,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 2,699.4% in the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 8,217,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $257,207,000 after acquiring an additional 7,923,926 shares during the last quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP grew its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 47.4% in the 2nd quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 8,072,372 shares of the company’s stock valued at $247,418,000 after acquiring an additional 2,594,994 shares during the period. D1 Capital Partners L.P. increased its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 91.5% during the 3rd quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. now owns 5,264,498 shares of the company’s stock worth $164,779,000 after purchasing an additional 2,514,715 shares during the last quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP bought a new stake in Warner Music Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $160,156,000. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 19.6% in the second quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 5,061,093 shares of the company’s stock valued at $155,122,000 after buying an additional 831,114 shares during the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WMG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on Warner Music Group from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Macquarie reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $30.00 price target (down previously from $33.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.67.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WMG opened at $31.94 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $32.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $30.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.54 billion, a PE ratio of 38.48, a P/E/G ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.95, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.65. Warner Music Group Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $27.06 and a fifty-two week high of $38.05.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.20). Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 69.29% and a net margin of 6.77%. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.34 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 19th were paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 19th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.25%. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 86.75%.

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.