WU - The Western Union Company
Chart Events
Performance Outlook
- Short Term2W - 6W
- Mid Term6W - 9M
- Long Term9M+
| Previous Close | 20.02 |
| Open | 20.24 |
| Bid | 21.85 x 3000 |
| Ask | 0.00 x 2200 |
| Day's Range | 19.90 - 20.88 |
| 52 Week Range | 17.39 - 28.45 |
| Volume | 8,814,357 |
| Avg. Volume | 8,133,968 |
| Market Cap | 8.51B |
| Beta (5Y Monthly) | 0.91 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 8.28 |
| EPS (TTM) | 2.50 |
| Earnings Date | Jul 30, 2020 - Aug 03, 2020 |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | 0.90 (4.50%) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | Jun 15, 2020 |
| 1y Target Est | 20.07 |
- Bloomberg
Western Union Makes an Offer to Buy MoneyGram
(Bloomberg) -- Western Union Co. is seeking to acquire MoneyGram International Inc. in a transaction that would bring together two of the largest U.S. providers of money-transfer services, according to a person familiar with the matter.Western Union has made a takeover offer for MoneyGram, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the matter isn’t public. No decision has been made and Western Union could opt to proceed without a deal, the person said.Representatives for Western Union and MoneyGram declined to comment.The business has been in decline as more people use online payments. Financial-technology upstarts have taken aim at the industry, offering strong new competition to established companies. Meanwhile, policy makers are intent on trimming the fees associated with moving money around the world.MoneyGram rose as high as 74% in late trading Monday. The stock closed up 6.2% to $2.59, giving the company a market value of about $164 million. It also has about $878 million of debt. Western Union rose 3.5% to $20.71 for a market value of about $8.5 billion.Dallas-based MoneyGram has struggled during the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced it to shutter operations around the globe as governments imposed shelter-in-place orders. While MoneyGram has boosted digital transactions, they made up just 18% of its money transfers in the first quarter, the company reported last month.Last year, Facebook Inc. joined with companies from around the world to form the Libra Association to offer a new way to send payments overseas. At the time, the association lamented that low-income consumers often pay too much for financial services.Governments and regulators around the world have long sought to cut the cost of remittances, which often cater to migrants who lack access to traditional bank accounts. On average, it costs $6.79 for every $100 in remittances sent overseas, according to data compiled by the World Bank.Ant Financial Services Group, the Chinese financial services conglomerate, agreed to acquire MoneyGram in 2017 but abandoned the deal after pushback from national security regulators in the U.S.(Updates with fintechs, regulators, industry scope starting in first paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- SmarterAnalyst
Western Union Seeks To Buy MoneyGram; MGI Spikes 32%
Shares in US money transfer company MoneyGram (MGI) spiked 32% in after-hours trading on Monday on reports of takeover talks with Western Union (WU). On the news Western Union also surged 6% after-hours.According to a Bloomberg report, Western Union has already made a takeover offer for MoneyGram, but no decision has been made and Western Union could choose to proceed without a deal.MGI is the second largest money transfer player with ~350K agents around the world, and a fast growing self-service (kiosk) and online presence which are 15% of money transfer revenues.However the company has struggled recently, with 1Q revenues of $290.9M declining 8% y/y, and April transactions down 19% y/y. This was despite the fact that April saw significant growth in digital transaction with a 75% increase.Northland Securities analyst Michael Grondahl has a hold rating on MoneyGram, with a price target of just $1.“Since MGI was recapitalized in 2008 (due to bond portfolio implosion) they have continued to tackle many internal and external issues, we believe this continues to be a long journey with a high gross debt level of ~$909M and weak cash flows” he explained.Indeed, the stock shows a bearish Moderate Sell consensus from the Street. The average analyst price target of $1 now stands at 60% downside from the current share price. Shares are currently trading up 24% year-to-date.Meanwhile WU shows a Hold analyst consensus rating, with an average analyst price target of $20 (2% downside potential). “While we believe WU’s operating performance will be severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the near-term, we believe the company’s ample liquidity will enable it to weather the crisis” comments BTIG’s Mark Palmer.He has a more bullish buy rating on the stock with a $28 price target (35% upside potential), based on separate valuations for the company’s traditional money transfer business and its rapidly growing digital business. (See WU stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: KKR Joins $3.3 Billion Bid To Acquire Spanish Telecom Carrier Masmovil Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Invests In UK Freight Startup Beacon Zynga Snaps Up Peak For $1.8B In Its Largest Deal To Date; Shares Up 7% More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Gilead Sinks 3% On New Remdesivir Data; Analysts Stay Sidelined * Coty Names Chairman Peter Harf As CEO To Steer Strategic Turnaround; Shares Pop 18% * Abiomed’s Heart Pump Gets FDA Emergency Use Status For Covid-19 Patients * Eli Lilly’s Taltz Injection Gets FDA Nod For Inflammatory Spine Arthritis Treatment
- MarketWatch
MoneyGram shares soar after hours on report of Western Union takeover bid
Shares of MoneyGram International Inc. soared in after-hours trading Monday after a report that Western Union Co. was looking to acquire it. Bloomberg News reported the potential takeover, which was said to be still under discussion. No purchase price was reported. A deal would combine two of the biggest money-transfer services in the U.S. MoneyGram shares ended the extended session up 32%, at $3.41 a share, after peaking as high as 74%. The company has a market cap of $176.5 million as of the end of trading Monday. MoneyGram stock has risen 23% year to date, and 86% over the past 12 months. Western Union shares rose more than 6% after hours, but are down 23% in 2020.
- Business Wire
New Western Union research provides insight into the future of international education
Future international students’ demands, attitudes and behavior will transform the way universities educate, enrich and host their populations.
- Business Wire
Western Union Provides Update on Improving Transaction Trends in Its Consumer-to-Consumer Segment, including Acceleration in Digital Growth
Western Union to present at upcoming conferences, including Bank of America’s Global Technology Conference and Bernstein’s Annual Strategic Decisions
- Thomson Reuters StreetEvents
Edited Transcript of WU earnings conference call or presentation 5-May-20 8:30pm GMT
Q1 2020 Western Union Co Earnings Call
- Business Wire
Western Union to Present at Bernstein’s 36th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference
Western Union to Present at Bernstein’s 36th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference
- Business Wire
Western Union Announces $0.225 Quarterly Dividend
Western Union Announces $0.225 Quarterly Dividend
- Zacks
Western Union (WU) Offers Paycheck Protection Program Loans
Western Union (WU) provides small business loans to eligible companies amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Zacks
How Adversely Will Coronavirus Impact Western Union (WU) Business?
Coronavirus-induced decline in global remittance is likely to damage Western Union's (WU) near-term business prospects.
- Business Wire
Western Union Provides Access to Paycheck Protection Program Loans for Agents and Business Customers
Western Union is now one of a few non-bank approved lenders providing access to small business loans to WU Agents and business clients
- Bloomberg
Lockdown Disrupts the Part of Finance That Hasn’t Gone Digital
(Bloomberg) -- It had been over three hours, and Raynique Cartwright still hadn’t received her money.Cartwright, 21, had arrived at the Western Union location in the Bahamas a little before 10 a.m. to pick up funds, but the branch was only allowing two or three people inside per hour, leaving a large crowd outside clamoring to get in.“Social distancing was almost a non-factor because people started getting rowdy and would gather around the door to see why the line was literally not even moving,” said Cartwright, who eventually made it inside at 1 p.m. “A lot of people left who were ahead of me.”Cartwright’s plight is playing out at thousands of storefronts around the world that act as agents for Western Union Co. and its rival, MoneyGram Inc. Consumers have flooded social media with tales and images of lengthy lines and boisterous crowds seeking to pick up funds sent by friends and family abroad. One person in the Queens borough of New York photographed a queue that stretched the length of the city block. At a location inside a gas station in Jamaica, dozens clustered around the pumps as they waited to access their funds.Migrant workers are major customers of the money-transfer companies because they often have family abroad and are excluded from traditional banking services, where those who are better off financially have flocked to computers and phones for their transactions.Roughly a billion people worldwide either send or receive remittances. For the recipients, the money is a lifeline that can account for more than half their income, even though senders often wire them just 15% of what they earn, according to data compiled by the United Nations.Because it often caters to under-banked consumers, the business has remained stubbornly in the physical world, with MoneyGram and Western Union operating almost a million locations through their agent networks. Customers typically like picking up cash in person because it’s currency they can spend immediately.That’s meant the companies have struggled amid the global lockdown instituted to stem the spread of the deadly coronavirus. It’s left some outlets understaffed and some branches, such as those located inside retail stores, either closed entirely or forced to contend with shorter hours.About 40% of MoneyGram’s locations are shut, and many “have some sort of disruption to operating hours or normal flows,” Chief Executive Officer Alex Holmes said in an interview.Brad Windbigler, Western Union’s head of treasury and investor relations, said the company is “doing everything we can” to stay open. “It’s a privileged space for us to be in to serve that market,” Windbigler said in an interview.Record RemittancesRemittances to low- and middle-income countries have steadily grown in importance in recent years, reaching a record $554 billion in 2019, according to data compiled by the World Bank. Last year was also the first time remittances surpassed foreign direct investment in those countries.Then the coronavirus hit, leaving many customers out of work or stuck at home, unable to continue sending money abroad. The World Bank expects remittances globally to drop 20% this year, the sharpest decline in recent history.“It will take some time for us to get through the unemployment,” said Michael Brown, CEO of Euronet Worldwide Inc., which operates the Ria money-transfer business. “As people regain employment, their first thought will be to continue to be with their families and their family’s well-being.”One bright spot for money-transfer companies in recent weeks has been their digital businesses. In the first 27 days of April, 28% of all of MoneyGram’s money-transfer transactions were digital, compared with 18% at the end of the first quarter. Western Union said 30% of its consumer-to-consumer transactions were generated by digital channels.PayPal Holdings Inc.’s Xoom remittances business has seen net new active users quintuple since January and February, CEO Dan Schulman told analysts on a call last week.“People aren’t going into physical locations anymore to give money and to have somebody on the receiving end going to a specific location to get money,” Schulman said.Biggest ImpactThe World Bank anticipates countries in Europe and Central Asia, where the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan rely on remittances for almost 30% of gross domestic product, will see a 28% decline in remittances, the steepest drop globally.Countries in East Asia and the Pacific -- the region that receives the largest amount of remittances on a dollar basis -- could see such flows slide 13%. The roughly $35 billion the Philippines receives in remittances each year accounts for 10% of gross domestic product, according to the World Bank.The question executives face now is whether demand for their services will rebound as shelter-in-place orders are lifted, or if lingering unemployment will leave consumers unable to send money back home.“A great example is the cruise industry,” MoneyGram’s Holmes told analysts earlier this month. “Indonesians and Filipinos, they’re on cruise ships all over the world. If they don’t go back to work, that unemployment level will sustain itself for a very long period of time,” hindering those consumers’ ability to send money home, he said.Still, many executives said they’ve seen their customers get a boost from government stimulus programs, which has been a buoy for volume in recent weeks.Western Union’s customers “are nurses, grocery store workers, or ambulance drivers -- they put their lives at risk and support millions of people that shelter in place around the globe,” CEO Hikmet Ersek told investors on a conference call last week. “At the same time, they are supporting their loved ones, often far away from them by sending money home.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Business Wire
Western Union to Present at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference
Western Union to Present at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference
- Business Wire
Western Union Pays Tribute to First Responders & Essential Workers Globally
Western Union Pays Tribute to First Responders & Essential Workers Globally - Provides fee reduction for frontline and essential workers.
- Zacks
Western Union (WU) Surpasses Q1 Earnings Estimates
Western Union (WU) delivered earnings and revenue surprises of 7.32% and -1.96%, respectively, for the quarter ended March 2020. Do the numbers hold clues to what lies ahead for the stock?
- Investing.com
BTIG Sticks to Their Buy Rating for Western Union
BTIG analyst Mark Palmer reiterated a Buy rating on Western Union (NYSE:WU) on Tuesday, setting a price target of $28, which is approximately 51.19% above the present share price of $18.52.
- Reuters
Western Union expects Q2 to be its weakest quarter in 2020
Western Union Co, the world's largest money transfer firm, expects the second quarter to be its lowest in 2020 in terms of revenue and profit margins and is confident of improvement as lockdowns from COVID-19 ease, its chief financial officer said on Tuesday. The firm generated revenue of $1.2 billion in the first quarter, a decline of 11% compared to the prior year period, on a reported basis. "We saw improved trend in the month of April and given where the various forecasts for economic growth and GDP, we think the second quarter will be the lowest quarter for us during the course of this year from a revenue and profit margins standpoint and hopefully it will improve after we get through the second quarter," Raj Agrawal told Reuters.
- Zacks
What's in the Cards for Western Union's (WU) Q1 Earnings?
Western Union's (WU) first-quarter results are likely to reflect softer revenues at its C2C segment, partially offset by continued share buybacks.
- Business Wire
Western Union Launches Singapore Labour Day Zero-Fee Offer
To celebrate Labour Day and the contribution of the international and national community of workers in Singapore, Western Union, a leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, has launched a zero-fee1 offer on all international money transfers. The offer is valid until May 31, 2020.
- Zacks
Western Union (WU) Reports Next Week: Wall Street Expects Earnings Growth
Western Union (WU) doesn't possess the right combination of the two key ingredients for a likely earnings beat in its upcoming report. Get prepared with the key expectations.
- Business Wire
Western Union and the Western Union Foundation Expand Funding for Global COVID-19 Relief
The Western Union Foundation has announced a commitment of an additional USD $300,000 in the global fight against COVID-19, making the combined funds pledged by Western Union and the Western Union Foundation USD $800,000.
- Business Wire
Tony’s Fresh Market and the Western Union Foundation Donate USD $100K to the Chicago Community COVID-19 Response Fund
The Western Union Foundation and Tony’s Charitable Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Tony’s Fresh Market, are proud to announce a donation of USD $100,000 to the Chicago Community COVID-19 Response Fund. The funds will support nonprofit organizations that are providing access to essential goods and services such as emergency food, and healthcare supplies. The majority of the nearly 140 grant recipients to date are working to provide emergency access to food and supplies, including the Greater Chicago Food Depository and Northern Illinois Food Bank, which distributed 6.1 million meals in March.
- Business Wire
Western Union Expands Global Real-Time Payments Network
Western Union Expands Global Real-Time Payments Network. Real-Time Payments into Select Bank Accounts and Wallets now in 50 Countries
- Business Wire
Western Union to Release First Quarter Results on May 5, 2020
Western Union to Release First Quarter Results on May 5, 2020
