TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.12 Per Share

TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 13th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be paid a dividend of 0.115 per share by the business services provider on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. This is a boost from TransUnion’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11.

TransUnion has increased its dividend payment by an average of 5.3% per year over the last three years. TransUnion has a dividend payout ratio of 8.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect TransUnion to earn $3.99 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.42 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 10.5%.

TransUnion Trading Down 0.5 %

TRU opened at $93.46 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.68, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The stock has a market cap of $18.22 billion, a PE ratio of 81.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a fifty day moving average of $95.09 and a 200-day moving average of $97.75. TransUnion has a twelve month low of $66.07 and a twelve month high of $113.17.

TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.14). TransUnion had a net margin of 5.47% and a return on equity of 15.38%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that TransUnion will post 3.44 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director George M. Awad sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $1,200,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 27,026 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,702,600. This represents a 30.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Todd C. Skinner sold 3,090 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.48, for a total value of $313,573.20. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 24,333 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,469,312.84. This represents a 11.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 18,590 shares of company stock valued at $1,854,218. Insiders own 0.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on TRU. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of TransUnion in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $121.00 price target on shares of TransUnion in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on TransUnion from $104.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of TransUnion from $135.00 to $126.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of TransUnion from $130.00 to $127.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, TransUnion has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $107.63.

TransUnion Company Profile

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.