Warner Music Group Corp. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.18 (NASDAQ:WMG)

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 21st, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, February 24th will be paid a dividend of 0.18 per share on Tuesday, March 4th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 24th.

Warner Music Group has increased its dividend payment by an average of 9.0% per year over the last three years. Warner Music Group has a dividend payout ratio of 47.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Warner Music Group to earn $1.51 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.7%.

Warner Music Group Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ WMG opened at $35.26 on Friday. Warner Music Group has a 12-month low of $27.06 and a 12-month high of $36.64. The firm has a market cap of $18.35 billion, a PE ratio of 35.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.35. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released 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 net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 79.01%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Warner Music Group will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.96, for a total transaction of $1,083,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 242,360 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 accessible through this link. Also, Director Valentin Blavatnik sold 28,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,419,958.80. This trade represents a 29.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 64,333 shares of company stock worth $2,124,602. Insiders own 72.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on WMG shares. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on shares of 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. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of 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. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Two investment 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $35.81.

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.