State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Grows Position in The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lifted its stake in shares of The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) by 16.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 165,990 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 23,746 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Western Union were worth $1,980,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 13,724,584 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management raised its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,462,853 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Western Union by 62.8% during the second 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 during the period. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its position in Western Union by 52.0% in 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 buying an additional 1,142,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Western Union by 5,731.4% in the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 787,943 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $9,629,000 after buying an additional 774,431 shares during the period. 91.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective 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. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Western Union from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. UBS Group reduced their price target on Western Union from $13.50 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Western Union from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Union has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.86.

Western Union Trading Up 2.6 %

WU stock opened at $10.84 on Friday. The Western Union Company has a 12-month low of $10.51 and a 12-month high of $14.19. The business’s 50-day moving average is $11.49 and its 200 day moving average is $12.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96. The stock has a market cap of $3.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.56, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.87.

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