The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) Given Average Rating of “Reduce” by Brokerages

Shares of The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU – Get Rating) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eighteen research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and eight have assigned a hold recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $13.58.

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on WU shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on Western Union from $15.00 to $12.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 11th. UBS Group upgraded Western Union from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 10th. Wolfe Research upgraded Western Union from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 20th. 3M restated a “maintains” rating on shares of Western Union in a research note on Wednesday, May 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on Western Union in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company.

Institutional Trading of Western Union

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Union in the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in Western Union by 7,000.0% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 2,201 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 2,170 shares during the period. Y.D. More Investments Ltd acquired a new stake in Western Union in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in Western Union by 157.6% in the 4th quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,540 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 1,554 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP increased its position in Western Union by 1,715.3% in the 1st quarter. Quarry LP now owns 3,685 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 3,482 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.66% of the company’s stock.

Western Union Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:WU opened at $12.22 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.45. Western Union has a 52-week low of $10.07 and a 52-week high of $18.23. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $11.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.87. The company has a market capitalization of $4.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.11 and a beta of 0.85.

Western Union (NYSE:WU – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 2nd. The credit services provider reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.09. Western Union had a return on equity of 128.52% and a net margin of 17.65%. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $997.07 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.51 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Western Union will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Union Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 30th. Shareholders 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 7.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 15th. Western Union’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.00%.

Western Union Company Profile

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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.