Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Rating Increased to Buy at Citigroup

Citigroup upgraded shares of Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Friday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has $42.00 price objective on the stock, up from their previous price objective of $34.00.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Macquarie reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Loop Capital lowered their target price on shares of 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $35.81.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WMG opened at $36.30 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $18.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.04, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.88. Warner Music Group has a one year low of $27.06 and a one year high of $36.81.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.11. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 79.01%. Research analysts predict that Warner Music Group will post 1.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 24th will be issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.98%. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 73.47%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of Warner Music Group 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 directly 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 72.21% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. 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 worth $257,207,000 after purchasing an additional 7,923,926 shares during the last quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP raised its position in Warner Music Group by 7,206.3% in the fourth quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 6,000,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $186,000,000 after acquiring an additional 5,917,879 shares during the period. D1 Capital Partners L.P. raised its position in Warner Music Group by 91.5% in the third quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. now owns 5,264,498 shares of the company’s stock worth $164,779,000 after acquiring an additional 2,514,715 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Warner Music Group by 27.9% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 11,199,012 shares of the company’s stock worth $347,169,000 after acquiring an additional 2,444,508 shares during the period. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its position in Warner Music Group by 43.5% in the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 7,920,342 shares of the company’s stock worth $245,531,000 after acquiring an additional 2,400,500 shares during the period. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.