Warner Music Group’s (WMG) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at Guggenheim

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by stock analysts at Guggenheim in a research note issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $36.00 target price on the stock. Guggenheim’s price target points to a potential upside of 28.83% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on WMG. Wall Street Zen downgraded Warner Music Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, July 18th. Zacks Research downgraded Warner Music Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Monday, September 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $36.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $38.25.

Warner Music Group Trading Up 3.0%

Warner Music Group stock traded up $0.80 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $27.94. 736,529 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,288,328. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.94. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.31. Warner Music Group has a twelve month low of $23.34 and a twelve month high of $35.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.62 billion, a PE ratio of 22.15, a PEG ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 1.31.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.17. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 85.50% and a net margin of 9.20%.The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.81 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.03) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Warner Music Group will post 1.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Warner Music Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WMG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Warner Music Group by 15.2% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 16,645,276 shares of the company’s stock valued at $510,511,000 after acquiring an additional 2,200,362 shares in the last quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP lifted its position in Warner Music Group by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 11,943,199 shares of the company’s stock valued at $323,302,000 after acquiring an additional 93,199 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Warner Music Group by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,208,005 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,743,000 after acquiring an additional 56,727 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in Warner Music Group by 88.3% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,521,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,867,000 after acquiring an additional 713,578 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Warner Music Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $35,449,000. Institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

About Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group Corp. is a global music entertainment company that operates through two principal businesses: recorded music and music publishing. Its recorded-music operations discover, develop, market and distribute music from a broad roster of artists through labels including Warner Records, Atlantic Records, Elektra Music Group and Parlophone.

The company’s music publishing business, Warner Chappell Music, manages and administers copyrights for songwriters and composers. Warner Music Group also provides artist and label services, digital distribution, licensing, marketing, physical and digital sales, and other services that support the commercial use of recorded music and musical compositions.

Warner Music Group serves artists, songwriters, labels, streaming platforms, broadcasters, brands and other music-industry partners in markets around the world.