Plato Investment Management Ltd Has $157,000 Stock Holdings in The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU)

Plato Investment Management Ltd increased its holdings in shares of The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) by 12.9% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 13,177 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,508 shares during the period. Plato Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Western Union were worth $157,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Western Union by 7,569.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 13,724,584 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew 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 buying an additional 1,462,853 shares during the last quarter. Discerene Group LP increased its holdings in shares of Western Union by 11.9% during the first quarter. Discerene Group LP now owns 6,682,192 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $93,417,000 after buying an additional 710,873 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Western Union by 62.8% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,730,450 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $45,586,000 after acquiring an additional 1,439,310 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP grew its position in Western Union by 52.0% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,337,466 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $40,784,000 after acquiring an additional 1,142,400 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.81% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Western Union Trading Up 2.6 %

WU opened at $10.84 on Friday. The Western Union Company has a fifty-two week low of $10.51 and a fifty-two week high of $14.19. The company has a market cap of $3.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.56, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $12.13.

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