Insider Selling: Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Director Sells 28,230 Shares of Stock

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Director Valentin Blavatnik sold 28,230 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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. The trade was a 29.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Warner Music Group Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of WMG opened at $35.26 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $31.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $31.16. Warner Music Group Corp. has a twelve month low of $27.06 and a twelve month high of $36.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.98, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.35.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.11. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 79.01%. On average, research analysts predict that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 24th. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 73.47%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WMG. Loop Capital dropped their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Macquarie reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $35.81.

Institutional Trading of Warner Music Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WMG. Concord Wealth Partners purchased a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 122.6% in the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 1,064 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 586 shares in the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 9,400.0% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,235 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 1,222 shares during the period. Finally, Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Warner Music Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Warner Music Group Company Profile

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.