Insider Selling: Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Director Sells $1,000,753.50 in Stock

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Director Valentin Blavatnik sold 28,230 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were 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 directly owns 68,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,419,958.80. This trade represents a 29.26 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

Warner Music Group stock opened at $35.26 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $18.35 billion, a PE ratio of 35.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $31.78 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $31.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.67. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 12 month low of $27.06 and a 12 month high of $36.64.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. Research analysts expect that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 24th will be paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 24th. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 73.47%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on WMG shares. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays lowered their price objective 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, November 22nd. Citigroup raised shares of Warner Music Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $34.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $35.81.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Warner Music Group

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Warner Music Group by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,371,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $414,504,000 after buying an additional 82,149 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Warner Music Group by 27.9% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 11,199,012 shares of the company’s stock valued at $347,169,000 after buying an additional 2,444,508 shares during the last quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP lifted its stake in Warner Music Group by 16.9% in the fourth quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 10,370,280 shares of the company’s stock valued at $321,479,000 after buying an additional 1,500,000 shares during the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in Warner Music Group by 2,699.4% in 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its stake in Warner Music Group by 43.5% in the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 7,920,342 shares of the company’s stock valued at $245,531,000 after buying an additional 2,400,500 shares during the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.