Blair William & Co. IL Buys 625 Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

Blair William & Co. IL grew its stake in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 7.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,575 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 625 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $269,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 122.6% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 1,064 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 586 shares in the last quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise bought a new position in Warner Music Group in the 1st quarter worth about $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 101.5% in the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,453 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 732 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming bought a new position in Warner Music Group in the 4th quarter worth about $47,000. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 45.2% in the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,820 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,000 after acquiring an additional 878 shares in the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on WMG shares. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised shares of Warner Music Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $34.00 price target (down previously from $35.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price target (up previously from $38.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Warner Music Group has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $34.00.

Warner Music Group Trading Down 0.3%

NASDAQ:WMG opened at $31.55 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $28.87 and a 200 day moving average of $30.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.35, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.26. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 52 week low of $25.56 and a 52 week high of $36.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.37.

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

Warner Music Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th will be issued a $0.19 dividend. This is an increase from Warner Music Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 20th. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio is 126.32%.

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.