Scotiabank Upgrades Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) to Sector Outperform

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) was upgraded by research analysts at Scotiabank from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Moffett Nathanson started coverage on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. They set a “buy” rating and a $38.00 price objective on the stock. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Warner Music Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 3rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $35.69.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WMG opened at $29.45 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $29.68 and its two-hundred day moving average is $31.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.30, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.69. Warner Music Group has a 1-year low of $25.56 and a 1-year high of $36.64. The company has a market cap of $15.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.24.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $1.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.77 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 38.33% and a net margin of 4.43%.The company’s revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.45 EPS. Analysts forecast that Warner Music Group will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WMG. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Warner Music Group by 12.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,914,577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $576,110,000 after purchasing an additional 1,837,801 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 16,645,276 shares of the company’s stock worth $510,511,000 after buying an additional 2,200,362 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 4.2% in the third quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 8,914,756 shares of the company’s stock worth $303,637,000 after buying an additional 363,092 shares during the last quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP raised its holdings in Warner Music Group by 14.3% in the second quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 8,000,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $217,920,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG boosted its stake in Warner Music Group by 44.1% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,208,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $98,391,000 after acquiring an additional 981,912 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

About Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group is a major global music company that operates across recorded music and music publishing. Its recorded-music business comprises a portfolio of well-known labels—including Atlantic, Warner Records and Parlophone—as well as distribution and artist-services operations that support both established and emerging artists. The company’s publishing arm, Warner Chappell Music, manages songwriting catalogs and administers rights for compositions across multiple media, providing licensing for film, television, advertising and other commercial uses.

WMG’s activities span the full music value chain: signing and developing artists, producing and marketing recordings, distributing music through physical channels and streaming platforms, and monetizing rights through licensing, synchronization and neighboring-rights collection.