Warner Music Group Corp. $WMG Shares Bought by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 15.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 16,645,276 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,200,362 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $510,511,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Warner Music Group by 12.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,914,577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $576,110,000 after buying an additional 1,837,801 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its stake in 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 valued at $303,637,000 after buying an additional 363,092 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its stake in Warner Music Group by 44.1% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,208,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $98,391,000 after buying an additional 981,912 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in Warner Music Group by 178.5% in the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,183,654 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,435,000 after buying an additional 2,040,425 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake in Warner Music Group by 36.9% in the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 2,976,111 shares of the company’s stock valued at $91,277,000 after buying an additional 802,694 shares in the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

More Warner Music Group News

Here are the key news stories impacting Warner Music Group this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Warner Music Group announced it is acquiring Sureel AI, a startup focused on AI attribution and detection, which may help protect artists’ rights and improve future monetization in AI-related uses of music. WARNER MUSIC GROUP ACQUIRES SUREEL AI
• Positive Sentiment: The deal gives Warner Music more tools to track how AI systems use artists’ work, supporting its broader strategy to protect intellectual property and negotiate AI licensing terms. Warner Music acquires AI attribution startup Sureel AI
• Neutral Sentiment: WMG was also listed on a Zacks “Strong Buy” income stock list, which may lend some support but is less directly tied to the day’s price move. Best Income Stocks to Buy for June 10th
• Negative Sentiment: Offsetting the upbeat acquisition news, a musicians’ union lawsuit over AI use highlights ongoing legal and regulatory risks for Warner Music and the wider music industry. Musicians union sues UMG and Warner Music over AI use

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group raised their price target on Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Scotiabank upgraded Warner Music Group from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $43.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Guggenheim raised their price target on Warner Music Group from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.38.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

Shares of WMG stock opened at $28.69 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $30.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $29.19. The firm has a market cap of $14.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.75, a PEG ratio of 0.43 and a beta of 1.27. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 1 year low of $23.34 and a 1 year high of $35.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.62, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.73.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.61 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 62.01% and a net margin of 6.34%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.07 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 26th were issued a dividend of $0.19 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 26th. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 89.41%.

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.