FIL Ltd Acquires 13,913 Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

FIL Ltd increased its holdings in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 0.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,568,446 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 13,913 shares during the quarter. FIL Ltd owned about 1.08% of Warner Music Group worth $172,622,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WMG. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $43,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Warner Music Group by 379.5% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,774 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 1,404 shares during the period. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton increased its holdings in Warner Music Group by 14.0% during the fourth quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 3,705 shares of the company’s stock valued at $115,000 after buying an additional 455 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in Warner Music Group by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 3,967 shares of the company’s stock worth $123,000 after acquiring an additional 458 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Warner Music Group news, EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.43, for a total transaction of $31,430.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 87,649 shares in the company, valued at $2,754,808.07. The trade was a 1.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Valentin Blavatnik sold 28,230 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 68,264 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,419,958.80. This represents a 29.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 30,333 shares of company stock valued at $1,072,432 over the last ninety days. 72.21% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Warner Music Group Stock Down 2.9 %

Shares of WMG opened at $28.05 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.32. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 1 year low of $27.06 and a 1 year high of $36.64. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $32.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.03.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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, equities analysts expect that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Monday, February 24th were given a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 24th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.57%. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 73.47%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on WMG. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Warner Music Group from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. FBN Securities assumed coverage on Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, March 28th. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $35.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Macquarie reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.76.

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.