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

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,103 shares of Warner Music Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.49, for a total transaction of $40,248.47. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 88,649 shares in the company, valued at $3,234,802.01. The trade was a 1.23 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Warner Music Group Stock Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ:WMG opened at $35.57 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.11. The firm has a market cap of $18.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.35. Warner Music Group Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $27.06 and a fifty-two week high of $36.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.69.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share 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%. Analysts predict that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 24th. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is currently 73.47%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Warner Music Group

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 2,699.4% in the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 8,217,467 shares of the company’s stock worth $257,207,000 after purchasing an additional 7,923,926 shares during the last quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 5,917,879 shares during the last quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 91.5% in the 3rd quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. now owns 5,264,498 shares of the company’s stock worth $164,779,000 after buying an additional 2,514,715 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 27.9% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 11,199,012 shares of the company’s stock worth $347,169,000 after acquiring an additional 2,444,508 shares during the period. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its position in Warner Music Group by 43.5% during 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 acquiring an additional 2,400,500 shares during the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on WMG. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Warner Music Group from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Loop Capital lowered their price objective on Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price 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. Two 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Warner Music Group has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.