Loop Capital Has Lowered Expectations for Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) Stock Price

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) had its target price decreased by investment analysts at Loop Capital from $38.00 to $35.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “hold” rating on the stock. Loop Capital’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 9.89% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on WMG. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on shares of 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. Tigress Financial cut their price objective on Warner Music Group from $52.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $44.00 target price on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Warner Music Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and issued a $30.00 price objective (down from $33.00) on shares of Warner Music Group in a report on Friday, October 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.79.

Warner Music Group Price Performance

WMG opened at $31.85 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.95, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.65. Warner Music Group has a 1 year low of $27.06 and a 1 year high of $38.05. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $31.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $30.62. The firm has a market cap of $16.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.37, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.37.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Warner Music Group news, CEO Max Lousada sold 64,047 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.25, for a total transaction of $1,809,327.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,909,422 shares in the company, valued at $82,191,171.50. The trade was a 2.15 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 628,205 shares of company stock worth $17,628,757. 73.35% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Warner Music Group

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 2,699.4% during the 3rd quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 8,217,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $257,207,000 after acquiring an additional 7,923,926 shares during the period. Independent Franchise Partners LLP purchased a new stake in Warner Music Group in the 2nd quarter worth $160,156,000. D1 Capital Partners L.P. bought a new stake in Warner Music Group during the second quarter valued at about $84,281,000. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP grew its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 47.4% during the second quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 8,072,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $247,418,000 after purchasing an additional 2,594,994 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP raised its stake in Warner Music Group by 19.6% during the 2nd quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 5,061,093 shares of the company’s stock valued at $155,122,000 after purchasing an additional 831,114 shares during the period. 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.