E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB Acquires 39,925 Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,090,238 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 39,925 shares during the quarter. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB owned approximately 0.21% of Warner Music Group worth $34,124,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 74.5% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 953 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC lifted 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 worth $37,000 after buying an additional 1,216 shares during the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group during the 3rd quarter worth $73,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group during the 1st quarter worth $82,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new position in Warner Music Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $86,000. Institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and set a $30.00 price target (down from $33.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, October 4th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, July 12th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $37.00 target price on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on Warner Music Group from $42.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Redburn Atlantic reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $23.00 target price (up previously from $21.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Warner Music Group from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.17.

Insider Buying and Selling at Warner Music Group

In related news, CEO Max Lousada sold 135,324 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.17, for a total transaction of $3,812,077.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,725,964 shares in the company, valued at $76,790,405.88. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders sold 628,205 shares of company stock valued at $17,628,757. 73.35% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

Shares of Warner Music Group stock opened at $31.95 on Friday. Warner Music Group Corp. has a twelve month low of $27.06 and a twelve month high of $38.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.26, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.69. The firm has a market cap of $16.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.38. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $30.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.81.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.58 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 101.32% and a net margin of 8.56%. As a group, research analysts expect that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 27th. This is a boost from Warner Music Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.25%. Warner Music Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 69.23%.

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.