Warner Music Group Corp. $WMG Shares Sold by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. trimmed its position in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 52.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 29,428 shares of the company’s stock after selling 32,132 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $802,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WMG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Warner Music Group by 36.6% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 15,296,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $479,552,000 after buying an additional 4,097,688 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 10.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,379,667 shares of the company’s stock worth $450,803,000 after buying an additional 1,316,979 shares during the last quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP grew its holdings in Warner Music Group by 127.0% during the first quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 13,378,864 shares of the company’s stock worth $419,427,000 after acquiring an additional 7,483,839 shares during the period. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB raised its position in Warner Music Group by 3.3% during the second quarter. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB now owns 1,048,077 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,550,000 after acquiring an additional 33,652 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in Warner Music Group by 2,198.4% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 999,613 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,338,000 after acquiring an additional 956,121 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Warner Music Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Friday, October 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Warner Music Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.76.

Warner Music Group Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of WMG opened at $31.96 on Friday. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 12-month low of $25.56 and a 12-month high of $36.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.37. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $33.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $30.36. The firm has a market cap of $16.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.32.

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

Warner Music Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th were given a dividend of $0.19 per share. 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 was Wednesday, August 20th. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 133.33%.

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.