Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Sees Large Volume Increase – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) saw strong trading volume on Friday . 2,455,842 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 31% from the previous session’s volume of 1,874,702 shares.The stock last traded at $32.18 and had previously closed at $32.48.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on WMG shares. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Macquarie reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup raised shares of Warner Music Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $34.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $35.81.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

The business’s 50 day moving average price is $32.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.11. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 79.01%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 24th were paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 24th. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 73.47%.

Insider Activity at Warner Music Group

In other news, EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,103 shares of Warner Music Group stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 88,649 shares in the company, valued at $3,234,802.01. This trade represents a 1.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Valentin Blavatnik sold 28,230 shares of Warner Music Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.45, for a total transaction of $1,000,753.50. Following the sale, the director now owns 68,264 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,419,958.80. The trade was a 29.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 72.21% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Warner Music Group

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Warner Music Group by 37.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,754,504 shares of the company’s stock valued at $274,016,000 after acquiring an additional 2,370,973 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Warner Music Group by 1.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,628,263 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,284,000 after acquiring an additional 49,166 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in Warner Music Group by 7,659.8% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 95,833 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,971,000 after acquiring an additional 94,598 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Warner Music Group by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 953,549 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,560,000 after acquiring an additional 48,772 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP increased its position in Warner Music Group by 355.3% during the third quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 44,337 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,388,000 after acquiring an additional 34,599 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

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.