Western Union (NYSE:WU) Board of Directors Declares Share Buyback Program

Western Union (NYSE:WU) declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Friday, December 13th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the credit services provider to reacquire up to 27.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WU. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of Western Union from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 9th. UBS Group cut their price target on Western Union from $13.50 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. StockNews.com raised Western Union from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Western Union from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Western Union from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Union has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $12.63.

Western Union Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of WU stock opened at $10.76 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.86. Western Union has a 12-month low of $10.51 and a 12-month high of $14.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $11.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.79.

Western Union (NYSE:WU) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The credit services provider reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. Western Union had a net margin of 16.07% and a return on equity of 120.39%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.43 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Western Union will post 1.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Union Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.235 per share. This represents a $0.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend 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.