Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Sanford C. Bernstein Analyst Says

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) had its price target raised by Sanford C. Bernstein from $32.00 to $34.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

WMG has been the subject of several other research reports. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and issued a $34.00 target price (down previously from $35.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $31.00 to $28.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $35.00 to $28.00 in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Warner Music Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.05.

Warner Music Group Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ WMG opened at $29.39 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $15.32 billion, a PE ratio of 33.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $27.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.43, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.64. Warner Music Group has a 1 year low of $25.56 and a 1 year high of $36.64.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.21). Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 64.64% and a net margin of 7.14%. The firm had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.18 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Warner Music Group will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 27th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.45%. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 82.76%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMG. Independent Franchise Partners LLP lifted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 127.0% during the first quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 13,378,864 shares of the company’s stock worth $419,427,000 after buying an additional 7,483,839 shares during the period. Darsana Capital Partners LP lifted its stake in Warner Music Group by 7,206.3% in the 4th quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 6,000,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $186,000,000 after purchasing an additional 5,917,879 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 36.6% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 15,296,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $479,552,000 after buying an additional 4,097,688 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its position in Warner Music Group by 43.5% in the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 7,920,342 shares of the company’s stock valued at $245,531,000 after buying an additional 2,400,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Darlington Partners Capital Management LP raised its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 16.9% in the 4th quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 10,370,280 shares of the company’s stock valued at $321,479,000 after buying an additional 1,500,000 shares during the period. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.