Insider Selling: Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) EVP Sells 1,103 Shares of Stock

Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG - Get Free Report) EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,103 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.49, for a total transaction of $40,248.47. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 88,649 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,234,802.01. The trade was a 1.23 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Warner Music Group Stock Down 0.9 %

Warner Music Group stock traded down $0.31 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $35.26. 1,936,192 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,946,394. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.69. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 12 month low of $27.06 and a 12 month high of $36.64. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $31.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $31.11. The company has a market cap of $18.35 billion, a PE ratio of 35.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.35.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.11. Warner Music Group had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 79.01%. As a group, analysts expect that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 24th will be issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 24th. Warner Music Group's dividend payout ratio is currently 73.47%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Guggenheim reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Warner Music Group has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $35.81.

Institutional Trading of Warner Music Group

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 37.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,754,504 shares of the company's stock valued at $274,016,000 after purchasing an additional 2,370,973 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,628,263 shares of the company's stock valued at $82,284,000 after purchasing an additional 49,166 shares during the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. raised its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 2,699.4% in the 3rd quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 8,217,467 shares of the company's stock valued at $257,207,000 after purchasing an additional 7,923,926 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP raised its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 355.3% in the 3rd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 44,337 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,388,000 after purchasing an additional 34,599 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 84.8% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 31,616 shares of the company's stock valued at $980,000 after purchasing an additional 14,507 shares during the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is currently 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.