Blueshift Asset Management LLC Invests $321,000 in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

Blueshift Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 10,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $321,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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 buying an additional 2,370,973 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 1.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,628,263 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,284,000 after buying an additional 49,166 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted 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 in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 355.3% during the third quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 44,337 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,388,000 after buying an additional 34,599 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Warner Music Group

In related news, Director Valentin Blavatnik sold 28,230 shares of the company’s 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 in the company, valued at $2,419,958.80. This represents a 29.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,103 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.49, for a total value of $40,248.47. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 88,649 shares in the company, valued at $3,234,802.01. The trade was a 1.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 72.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays dropped their target price on Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group dropped their price target on Warner Music Group from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Macquarie reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $30.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target 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. Finally, Citigroup raised Warner Music Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $34.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Warner Music Group has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $35.81.

Warner Music Group Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ WMG opened at $32.44 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67. The company has a market cap of $16.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.10, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.33. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 12 month low of $27.06 and a 12 month high of $36.64. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $32.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $31.84.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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, analysts forecast that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Stockholders 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 2.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 24th. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 73.47%.

Warner Music Group 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.