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

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by stock 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 objective points to a potential downside of 5.66% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim cut their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $44.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Loop Capital cut their target price on Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Barclays decreased 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.31.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WMG opened at $31.80 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $31.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $30.77. Warner Music Group has a 1 year low of $27.06 and a 1 year high of $38.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.95, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.47 billion, a PE ratio of 38.31, a P/E/G ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.35.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.34 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Warner Music Group will post 1.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.96, for a total transaction of $1,083,600.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 242,360 shares of the company’s stock, 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 filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 72.21% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Warner Music Group

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC grew its holdings in Warner Music Group by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 12,269 shares of the company’s stock worth $380,000 after acquiring an additional 408 shares during the period. Capital City Trust Co. FL grew its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Capital City Trust Co. FL now owns 10,422 shares of the company’s stock worth $326,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the period. Keystone Financial Services increased its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Keystone Financial Services now owns 10,336 shares of the company’s stock valued at $320,000 after purchasing an additional 432 shares in the last quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton lifted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 14.0% in the fourth quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 3,705 shares of the company’s stock valued at $115,000 after purchasing an additional 455 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 3,967 shares of the company’s stock worth $123,000 after buying an additional 458 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.