DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main Acquires New Holdings in The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU)

DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main acquired a new stake in shares of The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 44,612 shares of the credit services provider's stock, valued at approximately $473,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Western Union by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 38,055,661 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $403,390,000 after purchasing an additional 317,711 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Western Union by 18.0% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 28,983,265 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $307,224,000 after acquiring an additional 4,426,126 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Western Union by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,489,079 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $132,384,000 after acquiring an additional 549,931 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Western Union by 39.0% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 11,206,431 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $118,788,000 after acquiring an additional 3,146,395 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its holdings in shares of Western Union by 32.1% in the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 9,021,308 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $95,626,000 after acquiring an additional 2,194,403 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.81% of the company's stock.

Western Union Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of Western Union stock traded down $0.05 on Wednesday, hitting $9.66. 4,600,165 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,989,451. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $10.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $10.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.04. The Western Union Company has a 52 week low of $9.00 and a 52 week high of $13.32. The company has a market cap of $3.19 billion, a PE ratio of 3.54, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.72.

Western Union (NYSE:WU - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The credit services provider reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.01. Western Union had a net margin of 22.19% and a return on equity of 96.90%. The firm had revenue of $983.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. The company's revenue was down 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that The Western Union Company will post 1.79 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Western Union in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of Western Union from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Susquehanna lowered their price target on shares of Western Union from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Monness Crespi & Hardt downgraded shares of Western Union from a "neutral" rating to a "sell" rating and set a $7.50 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Western Union from $10.00 to $9.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $10.78.

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.