US Bancorp DE Sells 1,146 Shares of The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU)

US Bancorp DE lowered its holdings in shares of The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) by 14.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,960 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 1,146 shares during the quarter. US Bancorp DE’s holdings in Western Union were worth $83,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on WU. StockNews.com upgraded Western Union from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Western Union from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on Western Union from $13.50 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Union has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $12.86.

Western Union Stock Up 2.6 %

Western Union stock opened at $10.84 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.66 billion, a PE ratio of 5.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The Western Union Company has a 1-year low of $10.51 and a 1-year high of $14.19. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $11.49 and its two-hundred day moving average is $12.11.

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

Western Union 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.