Morgan Stanley Cuts Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Price Target to $31.00

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) had its price target trimmed by Morgan Stanley from $32.00 to $31.00 in a report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

WMG has been the topic of several other reports. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. FBN Securities started coverage on Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, March 28th. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $35.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays reduced their price objective on Warner Music Group from $31.00 to $28.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Macquarie reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $30.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.88.

Warner Music Group Stock Down 1.4%

NASDAQ:WMG opened at $27.31 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $30.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $31.68. Warner Music Group has a 52 week low of $26.34 and a 52 week high of $36.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.32.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.21). The firm had revenue of $1.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.52 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 79.01% and a net margin of 8.07%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.18 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 24th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 24th. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 82.76%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Warner Music Group news, EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.43, for a total transaction of $31,430.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 87,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,754,808.07. This trade represents a 1.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Valentin Blavatnik sold 28,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 68,264 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,419,958.80. The trade was a 29.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 30,333 shares of company stock valued at $1,072,432. 72.21% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Warner Music Group

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 37.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,754,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $274,016,000 after purchasing an additional 2,370,973 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 7,659.8% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 95,833 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,971,000 after buying an additional 94,598 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 953,549 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,560,000 after buying an additional 48,772 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 84.8% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 31,616 shares of the company’s stock worth $980,000 after buying an additional 14,507 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hahn Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 31.3% during the fourth quarter. Hahn Capital Management LLC now owns 255,101 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,908,000 after buying an additional 60,882 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.