EP Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 9,719 Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 9,719 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $304,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Concord Wealth Partners acquired a new position in Warner Music Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 74.5% during the second quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 953 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 9,400.0% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,235 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 1,222 shares in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 5,790.5% in the second quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 1,237 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,216 shares during the period. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Warner Music Group during the 3rd quarter valued at $73,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on WMG. Macquarie reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $30.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays lowered their price objective on Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $44.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Tigress Financial decreased their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $52.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Loop Capital dropped their price target on shares of 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Warner Music Group has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.67.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

WMG opened at $32.52 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.95. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $32.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $30.69. Warner Music Group Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $27.06 and a fifty-two week high of $38.05. The firm has a market cap of $16.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.35.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.20). Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 69.29% and a net margin of 6.77%. The company had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.34 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 19th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 19th. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 86.75%.

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.