Macquarie Reiterates Neutral Rating for Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG)

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating restated by investment analysts at Macquarie in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $30.00 price target on the stock. Macquarie’s price target indicates a potential downside of 6.92% from the company’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $44.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on 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. reduced their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.31.

Warner Music Group Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of WMG traded up $0.75 on Thursday, hitting $32.23. 1,460,863 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,933,943. Warner Music Group has a one year low of $27.06 and a one year high of $38.05. The company has a market capitalization of $16.69 billion, a PE ratio of 38.83, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.35. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.95, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.68.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.34 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Warner Music Group will post 1.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Warner Music Group news, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.96, for a total value of $1,083,600.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 242,360 shares in the company, valued at $7,503,465.60. This trade represents a 12.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 72.21% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Warner Music Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WMG. Concord Wealth Partners bought a new position in shares of Warner Music Group during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 1,222 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 379.5% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,774 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 1,404 shares during the period. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Warner Music Group during the 3rd quarter valued at $73,000. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton increased its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 14.0% in the 4th quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 3,705 shares of the company’s stock valued at $115,000 after acquiring an additional 455 shares during the period. 96.88% of the stock is 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.