US Bancorp DE Trims Stake in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

US Bancorp DE lowered its holdings in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 78.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,269 shares of the company’s stock after selling 22,755 shares during the quarter. US Bancorp DE’s holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $194,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMG. Hahn Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 31.3% in the fourth quarter. Hahn Capital Management LLC now owns 255,101 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,908,000 after buying an additional 60,882 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 62.1% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,140,665 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,361,000 after buying an additional 437,077 shares in the last quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 67,236 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,104,000 after buying an additional 1,009 shares in the last quarter. Keystone Financial Services grew its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Keystone Financial Services now owns 10,336 shares of the company’s stock valued at $320,000 after buying an additional 432 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 246,211 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,633,000 after buying an additional 6,023 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Warner Music Group news, EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,103 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.49, for a total transaction of $40,248.47. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 88,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,234,802.01. This trade represents a 1.23 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Valentin Blavatnik sold 28,230 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.45, for a total value of $1,000,753.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 68,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,419,958.80. The trade was a 29.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 64,333 shares of company stock worth $2,124,602 in the last quarter. 72.21% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Warner Music Group Trading Up 2.5 %

WMG opened at $32.91 on Friday. Warner Music Group Corp. has a one year low of $27.06 and a one year high of $36.64. The company has a market cap of $17.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.58, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.69. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $32.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.72.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Monday, February 24th were paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 24th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.19%. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 73.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on WMG shares. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on 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. Citigroup raised Warner Music Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $34.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their target price 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. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Warner Music Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $35.81.

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.