Sei Investments Co. Sells 162,946 Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

Sei Investments Co. reduced its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 38.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 261,872 shares of the company’s stock after selling 162,946 shares during the quarter. Sei Investments Co. owned approximately 0.05% of Warner Music Group worth $8,026,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 74.5% in the second quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 953 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 5,790.5% in the 2nd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 1,237 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,216 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new position in shares of Warner Music Group during the 1st quarter valued at $45,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Warner Music Group during the 1st quarter valued at $82,000. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp increased its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 66.4% in the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 3,475 shares of the company’s stock worth $107,000 after purchasing an additional 1,387 shares during the period. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Tigress Financial lowered their price target on Warner Music Group from $52.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $42.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, July 12th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $37.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Warner Music Group from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $36.92.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Max Lousada sold 428,834 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.00, for a total transaction of $12,007,352.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,289,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,113,588. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 628,205 shares of company stock valued at $17,628,757. 73.35% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Warner Music Group Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of Warner Music Group stock opened at $31.20 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $30.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.16 billion, a PE ratio of 31.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.37. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 52-week low of $27.06 and a 52-week high of $38.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.26, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.69.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 101.32% and a net margin of 8.56%. On average, analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 27th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.31%. This is an increase from Warner Music Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 27th. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 72.00%.

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.