Vanguard Group Inc. Purchases 684,864 Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 6.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,669,662 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 684,864 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 2.25% of Warner Music Group worth $417,657,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FIL Ltd increased its position in Warner Music Group by 85.6% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 5,198,892 shares of the company’s stock valued at $186,068,000 after buying an additional 2,397,232 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in Warner Music Group by 87.1% during the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,713,747 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,125,000 after buying an additional 1,263,690 shares in the last quarter. Honeycomb Asset Management LP increased its position in Warner Music Group by 30.9% during the 4th quarter. Honeycomb Asset Management LP now owns 250,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,948,000 after buying an additional 59,000 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Europe London LLP bought a new position in Warner Music Group during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,206,000. Finally, Junto Capital Management LP increased its position in Warner Music Group by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Junto Capital Management LP now owns 1,196,731 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,831,000 after buying an additional 31,138 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Shares of Warner Music Group stock opened at $30.48 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $33.71. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 52 week low of $25.28 and a 52 week high of $38.05. The company has a market capitalization of $15.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.50, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.81.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.07. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 120.42% and a net margin of 8.28%. The business had revenue of $1.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.06 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 23rd were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 22nd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.23%. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 68.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WMG has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Warner Music Group in a research report on Monday, May 6th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $43.00 price objective for the company. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on Warner Music Group from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Loop Capital lifted their target price on Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.88.

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.