Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd Makes New $43,000 Investment in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG)

Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd acquired a new position in Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd raised its stake in shares of Warner Music Group by 39.1% during the 4th quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd now owns 15,378 shares of the company’s stock valued at $477,000 after purchasing an additional 4,324 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN lifted its holdings in Warner Music Group by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 66,843 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,072,000 after buying an additional 1,805 shares during the period. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. bought a new position in shares of Warner Music Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $694,000. Ardmore Road Asset Management LP raised its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 100.0% in the 4th quarter. Ardmore Road Asset Management LP now owns 600,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,600,000 after acquiring an additional 300,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Warner Music Group by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,644,673 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,009,000 after buying an additional 16,410 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on WMG. FBN Securities initiated coverage on Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, March 28th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $35.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup raised Warner Music Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $34.00 to $42.00 in a report on Friday, February 14th. Macquarie reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Warner Music Group from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Warner Music Group in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.76.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Timothy Matusch sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Valentin Blavatnik sold 28,230 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.45, for a total transaction of $1,000,753.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 68,264 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,419,958.80. This represents a 29.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 30,333 shares of company stock valued at $1,072,432 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 72.21% of the company’s stock.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

Warner Music Group stock opened at $29.74 on Thursday. Warner Music Group Corp. has a 12-month low of $27.06 and a 12-month high of $36.64. The company has a market capitalization of $15.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.32. 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 firm’s fifty day moving average price is $32.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $32.01.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, research analysts forecast that Warner Music Group Corp. will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Monday, February 24th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 24th. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is presently 73.47%.

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.