ING Groep NV Acquires Shares of 460,000 Warner Music Group Corp. $WMG

ING Groep NV acquired a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 460,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,108,000. ING Groep NV owned approximately 0.09% of Warner Music Group at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Warner Music Group by 12.2% during the 3rd 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 grew its holdings in Warner Music Group by 4.2% during the 3rd 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 grew its holdings in Warner Music Group by 44.1% during the 4th 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 grew its holdings in Warner Music Group by 178.5% during the 3rd 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 grew its holdings in Warner Music Group by 36.9% during the 4th 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 owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WMG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley set a $39.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, May 8th. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $43.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, May 8th. Zacks Research raised shares of Warner Music Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.38.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

WMG stock opened at $29.93 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $29.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.21. Warner Music Group Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $23.34 and a fifty-two week 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. The firm has a market cap of $15.61 billion, a PE ratio of 35.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 1.27.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.61 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 62.01% and a net margin of 6.34%.Warner Music Group’s revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.07 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 26th were given a $0.19 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 26th. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.