USS Investment Management Ltd Lowers Holdings in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

USS Investment Management Ltd trimmed its holdings in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) by 48.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 29,061 shares of the company’s stock after selling 27,476 shares during the period. USS Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Warner Music Group were worth $901,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in WMG. Darsana Capital Partners LP lifted its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 7,206.3% in the fourth quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 6,000,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $186,000,000 after buying an additional 5,917,879 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Warner Music Group by 27.9% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 11,199,012 shares of the company’s stock worth $347,169,000 after acquiring an additional 2,444,508 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its stake in Warner Music Group by 43.5% during the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 7,920,342 shares of the company’s stock worth $245,531,000 after acquiring an additional 2,400,500 shares during the last quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP increased its stake in Warner Music Group by 16.9% during the fourth quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 10,370,280 shares of the company’s stock worth $321,479,000 after acquiring an additional 1,500,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its stake in Warner Music Group by 148.2% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 344,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,674,000 after acquiring an additional 1,058,895 shares during the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

NASDAQ WMG opened at $26.22 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.67, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $29.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.33. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 1 year low of $25.94 and a 1 year high of $36.64. The company has a market cap of $13.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.76, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.32.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.21). Warner Music Group had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 79.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.18 earnings per share. Warner Music Group’s revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Warner Music Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be given a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 27th. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is 82.76%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Warner Music Group news, EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.43, for a total value of $31,430.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 87,649 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,754,808.07. This represents a 1.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 72.21% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Citigroup raised Warner Music Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $34.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Friday, February 14th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Wolfe Research raised Warner Music Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Warner Music Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $35.00 to $28.00 in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.50.

Warner Music Group 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.