Swiss National Bank Trims Holdings in The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU)

Swiss National Bank reduced its holdings in shares of The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 660,500 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 12,500 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Western Union were worth $7,880,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WU. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Western Union by 7,569.8% during the first 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 purchasing an additional 13,724,584 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management lifted its stake in Western Union by 17.7% during 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 stake in 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 last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in 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 worth $40,784,000 after purchasing an additional 1,142,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Western Union by 5,731.4% during the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 787,943 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $9,629,000 after purchasing an additional 774,431 shares during the last quarter. 91.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on WU shares. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Western Union from $13.50 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Western Union from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Western Union from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, StockNews.com raised Western Union from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Union has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.86.

Western Union Price Performance

Shares of WU opened at $11.15 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.10. The Western Union Company has a one year low of $10.51 and a one year high of $14.19. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $11.38 and its 200-day moving average is $12.01.

Western Union (NYSE:WU) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The credit services provider reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. Western Union had a return on equity of 120.39% and a net margin of 16.07%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.43 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that The Western Union Company will post 1.77 EPS for the current 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.