Schulhoff & Co. Inc. Boosts Stake in The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU)

Schulhoff & Co. Inc. raised its holdings in shares of The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU – Get Rating) by 34.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,700 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,000 shares during the quarter. Schulhoff & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Western Union were worth $351,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Discerene Group LP boosted its holdings in shares of Western Union by 138.6% in the 4th quarter. Discerene Group LP now owns 5,681,336 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $101,355,000 after purchasing an additional 3,299,899 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Western Union by 19.8% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,182,789 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $185,676,000 after acquiring an additional 1,520,013 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of Western Union by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 22,532,152 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $455,600,000 after acquiring an additional 1,467,320 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Western Union by 16.5% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 9,487,728 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $169,261,000 after acquiring an additional 1,344,307 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Western Union by 69.3% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,372,891 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $47,981,000 after acquiring an additional 970,910 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.88% of the company’s stock.

WU has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group initiated coverage on Western Union in a research report on Thursday, March 31st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $19.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Western Union from $20.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Friday. Citigroup lowered Western Union from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $20.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday. Bank of America lowered Western Union from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $25.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on Western Union in a report on Thursday, March 31st. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.12.

WU traded down $2.41 during trading on Friday, hitting $16.76. 13,216,471 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,124,400. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $18.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $18.40. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.46. The Western Union Company has a 12-month low of $15.69 and a 12-month high of $26.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.38 and a beta of 0.90.

Western Union (NYSE:WU – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 28th. The credit services provider reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.16 billion. Western Union had a return on equity of 291.68% and a net margin of 15.89%. The company’s revenue was down 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.44 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that The Western Union Company will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

Western Union declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, February 10th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the credit services provider to repurchase up to 13.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 17th were issued a dividend of $0.235 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 16th. This represents a $0.94 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.61%. Western Union’s payout ratio is 41.41%.

Western Union Company Profile (Get Rating)

The Western Union Company provides money movement and payment services worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Consumer-to-Consumer and Business Solutions. The Consumer-to-Consumer segment facilitates money transfers between two consumers, primarily through a network of third-party agents and sub-agents; and offers international cross-border transfers and intra-country transfers, as well as money transfer transactions through websites and mobile devices.

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