Here’s Why The Western Union Company (WU) Traded Lower in Q4
Ariel Investments, an investment management company, released its “Ariel Focus Fund” fourth-quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, the fund increased +11.05% compared to +9.50% and +11.69% returns for the Russell 1000 Value Index and the S&P 500 Index, respectively. The fund increased by +6.97 over the trailing one-year underperforming both indexes’ +11.46% and +26.29% returns. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2023.
Ariel Focus Fund featured stocks like The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) in its Q4 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) offers money movement services to Consumer-to-Consumer and Business Solutions. On March 14, 2024, The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) stock closed at $13.32 per share. One-month return of The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) was 4.14%, and its shares gained 23.79% of their value over the last 52 weeks. The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) has a market capitalization of $4.558 billion.
Ariel Focus Fund stated the following regarding The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
"Global leader in money transfer services, The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU), traded lower in the period, despite the delivery of solid earnings and a subsequent raise in full year guidance. These results were aided by regulatory change in Iraq and margin expansion in the retail business. Meanwhile, management continues to make progress executing on its Evolve 2025 Strategy and continues to return capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Although the company anticipates the macroeconomic environment will continue to slow, it reminded investors remittances have proved resilient in prior periods of economic contraction. At current levels, WU is trading at a discount to our estimate of private market value."
A customer receiving a mobile money transfer notification on their phone.
The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) was held by 30 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 27 in the previous quarter, according to our database.
We discussed The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) in another article and shared the list of best low-priced dividend stocks to invest in. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
Suggested Articles:
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
