Ninety One UK Ltd Sells 662,108 Shares of TransUnion (NYSE:TRU)

Ninety One UK Ltd lessened its stake in shares of TransUnion (NYSE:TRU - Free Report) by 22.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,228,324 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 662,108 shares during the quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd owned approximately 1.15% of TransUnion worth $153,108,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in TRU. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in TransUnion by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 23,101,403 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,311,005,000 after buying an additional 1,242,868 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in TransUnion by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,806,886 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,736,824,000 after buying an additional 116,546 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in TransUnion by 12.5% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 12,668,211 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $718,921,000 after buying an additional 1,404,564 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in TransUnion by 23.7% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,923,690 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $353,472,000 after buying an additional 942,924 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in TransUnion by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,051,105 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $251,735,000 after buying an additional 108,183 shares during the last quarter.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Timothy J. Martin sold 12,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.59, for a total value of $943,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 54,522 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,284,883.98. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Timothy J. Martin sold 12,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.59, for a total value of $943,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 54,522 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,284,883.98. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Richard Dane Mauldin sold 1,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.10, for a total value of $117,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 22,033 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,720,777.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 15,275 shares of company stock worth $1,204,538 in the last three months. 0.22% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on TRU. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on TransUnion from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on TransUnion from $76.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on TransUnion from $69.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on TransUnion from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, StockNews.com raised TransUnion from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $81.47.

TransUnion Stock Down 3.7 %

TRU stock traded down $2.60 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $67.03. 2,641,441 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,643,446. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. TransUnion has a 12-month low of $42.09 and a 12-month high of $82.75. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $76.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $67.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -44.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.61.

TransUnion (NYSE:TRU - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.08. TransUnion had a positive return on equity of 13.58% and a negative net margin of 7.50%. The company had revenue of $954.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $927.04 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.70 EPS. TransUnion's revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that TransUnion will post 3.31 EPS for the current year.

TransUnion Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $0.105 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 6th. This represents a $0.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.63%. TransUnion's dividend payout ratio is presently -28.19%.

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.