Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) EVP Timothy Matusch Sells 1,103 Shares

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,103 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.49, for a total transaction of $40,248.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 88,649 shares in the company, valued at $3,234,802.01. This trade represents a 1.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Warner Music Group Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ WMG opened at $35.90 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 52 week low of $27.06 and a 52 week high of $36.64. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $31.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.35.

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

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Monday, February 24th will be paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 24th. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 73.47%.

Institutional Trading of Warner Music Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 37.1% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,754,504 shares of the company’s stock valued at $274,016,000 after purchasing an additional 2,370,973 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Warner Music Group by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,628,263 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,284,000 after acquiring an additional 49,166 shares in the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. increased its holdings in Warner Music Group by 2,699.4% during the 3rd quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 8,217,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $257,207,000 after acquiring an additional 7,923,926 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP increased its holdings in Warner Music Group by 355.3% during the 3rd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 44,337 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,388,000 after acquiring an additional 34,599 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in Warner Music Group by 84.8% during the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 31,616 shares of the company’s stock valued at $980,000 after acquiring an additional 14,507 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WMG has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of 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. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, UBS Group lowered 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, four have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $35.81.

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.