Western Union (WU) closed at $7.97 in the latest trading session, marking a -2.21% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.13% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.45%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 0.03%.
Shares of the money transfer company have depreciated by 11.22% over the course of the past month, underperforming the Business Services sector's gain of 0.89%, and the S&P 500's gain of 5.25%.
The upcoming earnings release of Western Union will be of great interest to investors. In that report, analysts expect Western Union to post earnings of $0.43 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 2.38%. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $1.04 billion, indicating a 1.51% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $1.76 per share and a revenue of $4.26 billion, indicating changes of +0.57% and +5.21%, respectively, from the former year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Western Union. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.
Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.09% lower. Right now, Western Union possesses a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at valuation, Western Union is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 4.64. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 9.9, so one might conclude that Western Union is trading at a discount comparatively.
We can additionally observe that WU currently boasts a PEG ratio of 1.04. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. The average PEG ratio for the Financial Transaction Services industry stood at 0.81 at the close of the market yesterday.
The Financial Transaction Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 62, placing it within the top 26% of over 250 industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Remember to apply Zacks.com to follow these and more stock-moving metrics during the upcoming trading sessions.
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The Western Union Company (WU): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).