New York State Teachers Retirement System Boosts Holdings in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 3.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,743 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 643 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $649,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Blair William & Co. IL increased its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 154,747 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,110,000 after purchasing an additional 405 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its position in Warner Music Group by 74.5% in the second quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 953 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. OmniStar Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 2.2% in the second quarter. OmniStar Financial Group Inc. now owns 19,812 shares of the company’s stock worth $607,000 after buying an additional 420 shares during the period. Sage Rhino Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 2.8% in the second quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 17,548 shares of the company’s stock worth $538,000 after buying an additional 473 shares during the period. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 13,141 shares of the company’s stock valued at $434,000 after acquiring an additional 773 shares during the period. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on WMG. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered 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 report on Tuesday, August 13th. Macquarie dropped their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 11th. Tigress Financial decreased their price target on Warner Music Group from $52.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered 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 report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating and set a $30.00 target price (down previously from $33.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.17.

Insider Buying and Selling at Warner Music Group

In related news, CEO Max Lousada sold 135,324 shares of Warner Music Group stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.17, for a total value of $3,812,077.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,725,964 shares in the company, valued at approximately $76,790,405.88. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders sold 628,205 shares of company stock worth $17,628,757 over the last 90 days. 73.35% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WMG opened at $33.00 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $17.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.73, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.37. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 1 year low of $27.06 and a 1 year high of $38.05. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $30.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $30.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.26, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 19th. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 69.23%.

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.