Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC Increases Stock Position in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 3.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,269 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 408 shares during the period. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC’s holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $380,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Capital City Trust Co. FL lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group by 4.3% in the third quarter. Capital City Trust Co. FL now owns 10,422 shares of the company’s stock valued at $326,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares in the last quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton raised its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 14.0% during the 4th quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 3,705 shares of the company’s stock worth $115,000 after purchasing an additional 455 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its stake in Warner Music Group by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 3,967 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 458 shares in the last quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in Warner Music Group by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 20,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $649,000 after buying an additional 643 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in Warner Music Group by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 76,508 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,428,000 after buying an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI cut their price target on Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $30.00 target price (down previously from $33.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Guggenheim cut their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $44.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Loop Capital decreased their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Warner Music Group has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.31.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

WMG stock opened at $31.48 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $16.31 billion, a PE ratio of 37.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.95. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $31.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $30.75. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 12-month low of $27.06 and a 12-month high of $38.05.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.20). Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 69.29% and a net margin of 6.77%. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.34 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.31 EPS for the current year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 19th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.29%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 19th. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 86.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Warner Music Group

In other news, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.96, for a total transaction of $1,083,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 242,360 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,503,465.60. This represents a 12.62 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 73.35% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.