Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Shares Down 7.9% – What’s Next?

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) traded down 7.9% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $30.72 and last traded at $31.00. 148,268 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 92% from the average session volume of 1,782,578 shares. The stock had previously closed at $33.67.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WMG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Tigress Financial cut their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $52.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Macquarie reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday. Barclays reduced their price target on Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $30.00 price objective (down from $33.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.00.

Warner Music Group Trading Up 2.1 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.26, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market cap of $16.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.37. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $31.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $30.68.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 19th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 19th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.26%. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 69.23%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Max Lousada sold 428,834 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.00, for a total value of $12,007,352.00. Following 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 628,205 shares of company stock worth $17,628,757. Corporate insiders own 73.35% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Warner Music Group

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its holdings in Warner Music Group by 74.5% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 953 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 407 shares during the period. Concord Wealth Partners bought a new position in Warner Music Group during the third quarter valued at $30,000. ORG Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 5,790.5% in the second quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 1,237 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 1,216 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 9,400.0% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,235 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 1,222 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group in the 3rd quarter worth about $73,000. 96.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Warner Music Group

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.