Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lowered its position in shares of The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU – Get Rating) by 30.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 349,323 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 154,766 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned about 0.09% of Western Union worth $4,810,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Western Union by 8.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 45,774,680 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $617,958,000 after buying an additional 3,522,420 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Western Union by 10.4% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,856,481 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $315,890,000 after purchasing an additional 1,592,331 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in Western Union by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 12,529,073 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $172,525,000 after acquiring an additional 1,509,663 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew its position in Western Union by 3.1% in the third quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 7,711,776 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $104,109,000 after acquiring an additional 234,389 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. grew its position in Western Union by 8.9% in the third quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 7,295,235 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $98,486,000 after acquiring an additional 595,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.66% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of research firms have issued reports on WU. Barclays decreased their target price on Western Union from $13.00 to $10.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 13th. 3M reiterated a “maintains” rating on shares of Western Union in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Western Union from $12.50 to $11.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 13th. Wolfe Research upgraded Western Union from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 20th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Western Union from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 10th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Union presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $13.70.
Western Union Price Performance
Western Union (NYSE:WU – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 2nd. The credit services provider reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $997.07 million. Western Union had a return on equity of 128.52% and a net margin of 17.65%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.51 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that The Western Union Company will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Western Union Dividend Announcement
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.235 per share. This represents a $0.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.99%. Western Union’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.00%.
About Western Union
The Western Union Co is a holding company, which engages in the provision of money transfer and payment services. It operates through the following segments: Consumer-to-Consumer, Business Solutions, and Other. The Consumer-to-Consumer segment facilitates money transfers between two consumers. The Business Solutions segment offers payment and foreign exchange solutions, cross-border, and cross-currency transactions for small and medium size enterprises and other organizations and individuals.
Further Reading
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