Brokerages Set The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) Price Target at $12.86

Shares of The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) have earned an average recommendation of “Reduce” from the ten analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have given a hold rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $12.86.

Several research firms recently weighed in on WU. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and set a $13.00 price target on shares of Western Union in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Western Union from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Western Union from $13.50 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of Western Union from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Western Union from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WU. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Western Union by 7,569.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,905,891 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $194,405,000 after acquiring an additional 13,724,584 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management lifted its holdings in shares of Western Union by 17.7% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 9,736,930 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $118,985,000 after purchasing an additional 1,462,853 shares during the last quarter. Discerene Group LP lifted its holdings in shares of Western Union by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. Discerene Group LP now owns 6,682,192 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $93,417,000 after purchasing an additional 710,873 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Western Union by 62.8% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,730,450 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $45,586,000 after purchasing an additional 1,439,310 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in Western Union by 52.0% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,337,466 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $40,784,000 after buying an additional 1,142,400 shares during the last quarter. 91.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Western Union Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of WU opened at $10.74 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.63 billion, a PE ratio of 5.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.87. The company’s fifty day moving average is $11.76 and its 200 day moving average is $12.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.10. Western Union has a fifty-two week low of $10.69 and a fifty-two week high of $14.19.

Western Union (NYSE:WU) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The credit services provider reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. Western Union had a net margin of 16.07% and a return on equity of 120.39%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Western Union will post 1.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Western Union

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.