BNP Paribas Financial Markets Purchases New Shares in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets purchased a new stake in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 43,492 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,348,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of WMG. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 122.6% during the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 1,064 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 586 shares in the last quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 7,206.3% during the fourth quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 6,000,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $186,000,000 after buying an additional 5,917,879 shares in the last quarter. RBO & Co. LLC grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. RBO & Co. LLC now owns 448,854 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,914,000 after buying an additional 2,101 shares in the last quarter. PDT Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 95.9% in the 4th quarter. PDT Partners LLC now owns 119,924 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,718,000 after purchasing an additional 58,705 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 15.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 713,384 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,115,000 after purchasing an additional 95,035 shares in the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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 dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.43, for a total value of $31,430.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 87,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,754,808.07. The trade was a 1.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Valentin Blavatnik sold 28,230 shares of Warner Music Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was 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 owns 68,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,419,958.80. This represents a 29.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 72.21% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WMG opened at $27.41 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $14.26 billion, a PE ratio of 27.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.32. Warner Music Group Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $26.34 and a fifty-two week high of $36.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.69. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $29.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.48.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.21). Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 79.01% and a net margin of 8.07%. The business had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.18 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be issued a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.63%. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 82.76%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMG has been the subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup upgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $34.00 to $42.00 in a report on Friday, February 14th. FBN Securities initiated coverage on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, March 28th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $35.00 price objective on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Warner Music Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $35.00 to $28.00 in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Guggenheim lowered their price objective on Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.50.

Warner Music Group 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.