DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Reduces Stake in Warner Music Group Corp. $WMG

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lowered its stake in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 20.4% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 54,712 shares of the company’s stock after selling 14,000 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $1,494,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMG. Independent Franchise Partners LLP grew its position in Warner Music Group by 127.0% in the first quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 13,378,864 shares of the company’s stock worth $419,427,000 after acquiring an additional 7,483,839 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Warner Music Group by 36.6% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 15,296,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $479,552,000 after acquiring an additional 4,097,688 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Warner Music Group by 10.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,379,667 shares of the company’s stock worth $450,803,000 after acquiring an additional 1,316,979 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in Warner Music Group by 2,198.4% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 999,613 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,338,000 after acquiring an additional 956,121 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its position in Warner Music Group by 2,000.6% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 810,315 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,403,000 after acquiring an additional 771,740 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

Warner Music Group stock opened at $32.82 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $33.24 and a 200-day moving average price of $30.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.37, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 0.66. Warner Music Group Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $25.56 and a fifty-two week high of $36.64. The company has a market capitalization of $17.11 billion, a PE ratio of 57.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.32.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.27 by ($0.30). Warner Music Group had a net margin of 4.59% and a return on equity of 39.95%. The company had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.27 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Warner Music Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th were paid a dividend of $0.19 per share. This is a boost from Warner Music Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 20th. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is presently 133.33%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on WMG. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised shares of Warner Music Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.53.

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.