Morgan Stanley Cuts Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Price Target to $37.00

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) had its price objective dropped by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $38.00 to $37.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective points to a potential upside of 25.00% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on WMG. Citigroup upped their price target on Warner Music Group from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. Barclays cut their target price on Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Loop Capital decreased their price target on Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 25th. UBS Group dropped their price target on 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.31.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WMG opened at $29.60 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $15.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.66, a PEG 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 has a 12 month low of $27.06 and a 12 month high of $38.05. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $31.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $30.76.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced 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 net margin of 6.77% and a return on equity of 69.29%. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.34 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group will post 1.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.96, for a total value of $1,083,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 242,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,503,465.60. This represents a 12.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 73.35% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 37.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,754,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $274,016,000 after acquiring an additional 2,370,973 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Warner Music Group by 1.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,628,263 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,284,000 after purchasing an additional 49,166 shares in the last quarter. Aristeia Capital L.L.C. bought a new position in Warner Music Group during the second quarter worth about $606,000. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 2,699.4% during the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 8,217,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $257,207,000 after purchasing an additional 7,923,926 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Perpetual Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $15,766,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

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.