Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.11 EPS

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.11, Zacks reports. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 79.01%.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WMG traded up $0.97 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $32.72. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,451,774 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,884,132. 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 52 week low of $27.06 and a 52 week high of $38.05. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $31.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $30.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.95 billion, a PE ratio of 33.39, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.35.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 19th were paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 19th. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 73.47%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WMG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Barclays cut their price objective 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 dropped their price target 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, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Two research 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 data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.31.

Insider Activity at Warner Music Group

In other news, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.96, for a total transaction of $1,083,600.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 242,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,503,465.60. This represents a 12.62 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 72.21% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Warner Music Group Company Profile

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.