Morgan Stanley Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Stock Price

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) had its price target decreased by Morgan Stanley from $38.00 to $37.00 in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target 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. Loop Capital lowered their price target on Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 25th. Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $30.00 price objective (down from $33.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Warner Music Group from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.31.

Warner Music Group Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:WMG opened at $29.59 on Monday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $31.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $30.76. Warner Music Group has a 1 year low of $27.06 and a 1 year high of $38.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.95, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The company has a market capitalization of $15.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.65, a P/E/G ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.35.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.34 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group will post 1.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 19th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 19th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.43%. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 86.75%.

Insider Activity at Warner Music Group

In other news, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the director now directly owns 242,360 shares in the company, valued at $7,503,465.60. This represents a 12.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 73.35% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Warner Music Group

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of WMG. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,223,000. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton lifted its stake in Warner Music Group by 14.0% in the fourth quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 3,705 shares of the company’s stock valued at $115,000 after buying an additional 455 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 379.5% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,774 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 1,404 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position 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 buying an additional 2,370,973 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 23.9% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 424,083 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,274,000 after acquiring an additional 81,799 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.