Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Now Covered by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Equities researchers at Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) in a report issued on Monday, StockNewsAPI reports. The firm set an “overweight” rating and a $43.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 22.54% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $17.00 to $21.00 in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Finally, Guggenheim dropped their price objective on Warner Music Group from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.18.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Shares of WMG stock opened at $35.09 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $33.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $34.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.50, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.70. Warner Music Group has a 52-week low of $23.62 and a 52-week high of $38.05.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.13). The business had revenue of $1.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 128.86% and a net margin of 7.42%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Warner Music Group will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,534,216 shares of the company’s stock valued at $456,374,000 after acquiring an additional 202,147 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Warner Music Group by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,669,662 shares of the company’s stock valued at $417,657,000 after purchasing an additional 684,864 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 21.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 9,319,510 shares of the company’s stock valued at $333,545,000 after buying an additional 1,651,571 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd lifted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 85.6% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 5,198,892 shares of the company’s stock valued at $186,068,000 after buying an additional 2,397,232 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in Warner Music Group by 87.1% during the fourth quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,713,747 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,125,000 after acquiring an additional 1,263,690 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% 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.