StockNews.com Begins Coverage on Western Union (NYSE:WU)

Investment analysts at StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Western Union (NYSE:WU – Get Rating) in a report released on Thursday. The firm set a “hold” rating on the credit services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Western Union from $12.50 to $11.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 13th. Wolfe Research raised Western Union from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 20th. 3M reaffirmed a “maintains” rating on shares of Western Union in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. UBS Group raised Western Union from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 10th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on Western Union from $13.00 to $10.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 13th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.70.

Western Union Stock Up 2.9 %

Western Union stock opened at $12.35 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.45, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. Western Union has a 1-year low of $10.07 and a 1-year high of $18.23. The company has a market cap of $4.62 billion, a PE ratio of 6.18 and a beta of 0.85. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $11.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $12.88.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $997.07 million. Western Union had a return on equity of 128.52% and a net margin of 17.65%. Western Union’s revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.51 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Western Union will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Union

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Union by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 45,774,680 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $617,958,000 after acquiring an additional 3,522,420 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of 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 worth $315,890,000 after buying an additional 1,592,331 shares during the period. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Western Union by 70.3% in the first quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 16,078,188 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $179,111,000 after buying an additional 6,638,884 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of 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 worth $172,525,000 after buying an additional 1,509,663 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Western Union by 10.8% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,663,089 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $119,291,000 after buying an additional 842,308 shares during the period. 97.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Western Union

(Get Rating)

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.