Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Plans $0.18 Quarterly Dividend

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 14th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 24th will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share on Tuesday, March 4th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.98%.

Warner Music Group has increased its dividend by an average of 9.0% annually over the last three years. Warner Music Group has a payout ratio of 47.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Warner Music Group to earn $1.61 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 44.7%.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

Warner Music Group stock opened at $36.30 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $31.37 and its 200-day moving average is $30.88. The company has a market cap of $18.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.04, a price-to-earnings-growth 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. Warner Music Group has a 12 month low of $27.06 and a 12 month high of $36.81.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on WMG. Barclays lowered their price objective on Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Macquarie restated a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Loop Capital lowered their price objective on 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, Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Warner Music Group currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $35.81.

Insider Activity

In other Warner Music Group 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 value of $1,083,600.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 242,360 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,503,465.60. This trade represents a 12.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 72.21% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.