Financial Advocates Investment Management Makes New Investment in The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU)

Financial Advocates Investment Management bought a new position in shares of The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 17,730 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WU. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Western Union by 2.3% in the third quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 17,854,661 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $235,324,000 after purchasing an additional 408,661 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Union by 10.5% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 11,498,861 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $151,555,000 after purchasing an additional 1,088,247 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Union by 17.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,882,154 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $130,247,000 after purchasing an additional 1,439,595 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew its holdings in shares of Western Union by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 8,087,155 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $96,399,000 after purchasing an additional 160,735 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group grew its holdings in shares of Western Union by 9.7% in the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 6,839,743 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $90,148,000 after purchasing an additional 605,620 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.81% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Timothy P. Murphy bought 10,000 shares of Western Union stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $12.85 per share, for a total transaction of $128,500.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 56,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $722,234.25. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.85% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Western Union Stock Performance

WU stock opened at $12.93 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.38, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $13.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.70. The company has a market capitalization of $4.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.65, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.84. The Western Union Company has a 1-year low of $10.92 and a 1-year high of $14.19.

Western Union (NYSE:WU) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The credit services provider reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. Western Union had a return on equity of 120.76% and a net margin of 14.12%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.43 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The Western Union Company will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Union Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a $0.235 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $0.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.27%. Western Union’s dividend payout ratio is presently 55.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WU. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Western Union from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Western Union from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Western Union from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Western Union in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt began coverage on shares of Western Union in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Union currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.61.

Western Union Company Profile

The Western Union Company provides money movement and payment services worldwide. The company operates through Consumer Money Transfer and Consumer Services segments. The Consumer Money Transfer segment facilitates money transfers for international cross-border and intra-country transfers, primarily through a network of retail agent locations, as well as through websites and mobile devices.