Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) EVP Timothy Matusch Sells 1,103 Shares

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,103 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.49, for a total transaction of $40,248.47. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 88,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,234,802.01. This trade represents a 1.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Warner Music Group stock opened at $35.90 on Wednesday. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 1 year low of $27.06 and a 1 year high of $36.64. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $31.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.05. The company has a market cap of $18.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.63, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.69.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.11. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 79.01%. Sell-side analysts predict that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 24th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 24th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.01%. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 73.47%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Warner Music Group by 37.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,754,504 shares of the company’s stock valued at $274,016,000 after buying an additional 2,370,973 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Warner Music Group by 1.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,628,263 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,284,000 after buying an additional 49,166 shares in the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. lifted its position in Warner Music Group by 2,699.4% during the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 8,217,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $257,207,000 after buying an additional 7,923,926 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 355.3% during the third quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 44,337 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,388,000 after purchasing an additional 34,599 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 84.8% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 31,616 shares of the company’s stock worth $980,000 after purchasing an additional 14,507 shares in the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Warner Music Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $34.00 to $42.00 in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Loop Capital lowered their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $35.81.

About Warner Music Group

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.