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

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating restated by equities researchers at Macquarie in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $30.00 target price on the stock. Macquarie’s target price would indicate a potential downside of 5.81% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on Warner Music Group from $42.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Warner Music Group from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Tigress Financial reduced their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $52.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $44.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Warner Music Group has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.00.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WMG opened at $31.85 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $31.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.37, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.37. Warner Music Group has a 12-month low of $27.06 and a 12-month high of $38.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.95.

Insider Activity at Warner Music Group

In other Warner Music Group news, CEO Max Lousada sold 135,324 shares of Warner Music Group stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.17, for a total value of $3,812,077.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,725,964 shares in the company, valued at $76,790,405.88. The trade was a 4.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 628,205 shares of company stock valued at $17,628,757 over the last ninety days. 73.35% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Warner Music Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WMG. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,861,877 shares of the company’s stock valued at $391,679,000 after purchasing an additional 192,215 shares during the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 7,923,926 shares during the last quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP lifted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 47.4% during the second quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 8,072,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $247,418,000 after buying an additional 2,594,994 shares during the period. D1 Capital Partners L.P. increased its position 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 valued at $164,779,000 after acquiring an additional 2,514,715 shares during the period. Finally, Independent Franchise Partners LLP acquired a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $160,156,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

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.