William Blair Reiterates “Outperform” Rating for TransUnion (NYSE:TRU)

TransUnion (NYSE:TRU)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at William Blair in a report released on Monday,RTT News reports.

TRU has been the topic of several other reports. Oppenheimer cut their price objective on shares of TransUnion from $115.00 to $112.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of TransUnion in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of TransUnion from $125.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of TransUnion from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of TransUnion from $130.00 to $127.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $111.64.

TransUnion Stock Up 2.9 %

TRU stock traded up $2.49 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $87.83. 487,954 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,550,080. TransUnion has a twelve month low of $66.07 and a twelve month high of $113.17. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $92.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $97.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. The company has a market capitalization of $17.14 billion, a PE ratio of 60.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.70.

TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.14). TransUnion had a net margin of 6.80% and a return on equity of 15.85%. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that TransUnion will post 3.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TransUnion announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, February 13th that allows the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to purchase up to 2.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at TransUnion

In other news, EVP Venkat Achanta sold 1,821 shares of TransUnion stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.74, for a total value of $174,342.54. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 105,443 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,095,112.82. This trade represents a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Steven M. Chaouki sold 1,000 shares of TransUnion stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.95, for a total transaction of $95,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 58,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,611,923.60. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 4,021 shares of company stock valued at $383,041 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.22% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TRU. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in TransUnion by 82.1% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 428 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in TransUnion in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Huntington National Bank lifted its stake in TransUnion by 58.7% in the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 454 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in TransUnion in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. acquired a new stake in TransUnion in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $47,000.

About TransUnion

TransUnion operates as a global consumer credit reporting agency that provides risk and information solutions. The company operates through U.S. Markets, International, and Consumer Interactive segments. The U.S. Markets segment provides consumer reports, actionable insights, and analytic services to businesses, which uses its services to acquire new customers; assess consumer ability to pay for services; identify cross-selling opportunities; measure and manage debt portfolio risk; collect debt; verify consumer identities; and mitigate fraud risk.