Victory Capital Management Inc. Sells 3,927 Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

Victory Capital Management Inc. lowered its stake in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 190,717 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,927 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $5,912,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 37.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,754,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $274,016,000 after acquiring an additional 2,370,973 shares during the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 2,699.4% during the 3rd quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 8,217,467 shares of the company’s stock worth $257,207,000 after acquiring an additional 7,923,926 shares during the last quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 91.5% during the 3rd quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. now owns 5,264,498 shares of the company’s stock worth $164,779,000 after acquiring an additional 2,514,715 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,628,263 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,284,000 after buying an additional 49,166 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,247,719 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,354,000 after buying an additional 10,222 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on WMG shares. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup raised shares of Warner Music Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $34.00 to $42.00 in a report on Friday, February 14th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Loop Capital lowered their price objective on Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $35.81.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

Shares of Warner Music Group stock opened at $32.91 on Friday. Warner Music Group Corp. has a one year low of $27.06 and a one year high of $36.64. The company has a market cap of $17.13 billion, a PE ratio of 33.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.69. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.71.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.11. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 79.01% and a net margin of 8.07%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Monday, February 24th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 24th. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 73.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,103 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.96, for a total value of $1,083,600.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 242,360 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,503,465.60. The trade was a 12.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 64,333 shares of company stock valued at $2,124,602 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 72.21% 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.