Western Union (NYSE:WU) to Buyback $1.00 billion in Stock

Western Union (NYSE:WU) declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Friday, December 13th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the credit services provider to reacquire up to 27.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WU. UBS Group reduced their target price on Western Union from $13.50 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 24th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Western Union from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on Western Union from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 9th. Barclays lowered their price target on Western Union from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have given a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.63.

Western Union Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE:WU opened at $10.76 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96. Western Union has a twelve month low of $10.51 and a twelve month high of $14.19. The company has a market cap of $3.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.86. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $11.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.79.

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

Western Union Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.235 per share. This represents a $0.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.74%. Western Union’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.21%.

Western Union Company 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.