Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Announces $0.18 Quarterly Dividend

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) declared a quarterly dividend on Sunday, November 17th,Zacks Dividends reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 19th will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share on Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 19th.

Warner Music Group has increased its dividend by an average of 40.1% annually over the last three years. Warner Music Group has a dividend payout ratio of 50.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Warner Music Group to earn $1.41 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 51.1%.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

WMG opened at $32.92 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.26. The firm has a market cap of $17.05 billion, a PE ratio of 31.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.37. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $31.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $30.69. Warner Music Group has a fifty-two week low of $27.06 and a fifty-two week high of $38.05.

Insider Transactions at Warner Music Group

In other news, CEO Max Lousada sold 428,834 shares of Warner Music Group stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.00, for a total transaction of $12,007,352.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,289,771 shares in the company, valued at $64,113,588. The trade was a 15.77 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 628,205 shares of company stock valued at $17,628,757. 73.35% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on WMG. Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $30.00 target price (down from $33.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, October 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $42.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Tigress Financial cut their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $52.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.17.

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.