Western Union Co Stock Buy Hold or Sell Recommendation
| WU Stock | USD 13.59 0.19 1.42% |
Allowing for the 90-day total investment horizon and your typical level of risk aversion, our recommendation regarding Western Union Co is 'Strong Buy'. Macroaxis provides Western Union buy-hold-or-sell recommendation only in the context of selected investment horizon and investor attitude towards risk assumed by holding WU positions. The advice algorithm takes into account all of Western Union's available fundamental, technical, and predictive indicators you will find on this site. Key drivers impacting Western Union's buy or sell advice are summarized below:
Real Value 13.1 | Target Price 13.17 | Hype Value 13.4 | Market Value 13.59 | Naive Value 13.4 |
A buy or sell recommendation provided by Macroaxis is an automated directive regarding whether to purchase or sell Western Union Co given historical horizon and risk tolerance towards Western Union. When Macroaxis issues a 'buy' or 'sell' recommendation for Western Union Co, the advice is generated through an automated system that utilizes algorithms and statistical models.
Western |
Execute Western Union Buy or Sell Advice
The Western recommendation should be used to complement the buy-or-sell advice compiled from the current analysts' consensus on Western Union Co. Macroaxis does not own or have any residual interests in Western Union Co or other equities on which the buy-or-sell advice is provided. Please provide your input below to execute Western Union's advice using the current market data and latest reported fundamentals.
Time Horizon
Risk Tolerance
 |  |
Strong Buy
Market Performance | OK | Details | |
Volatility | Not too volatile | Details | |
Hype Condition | Stale | Details | |
Current Valuation | Fairly Valued | Details | |
Odds Of Distress | Low | Details | |
Economic Sensitivity | Barely shadows the market | Details | |
Investor Sentiment | Interested | Details | |
Analyst Consensus | Hold | Details | |
Financial Leverage | Not Rated | Details | |
Reporting Quality (M-Score) | Unavailable | Details |
Western Union Trading Alerts and Improvement Suggestions
| Western Union is unlikely to experience financial distress in the next 2 years | |
| The company reports 2.5 B of total liabilities with total debt to equity ratio (D/E) of 4.94, which implies that the company may not be able to produce enough cash to satisfy its debt commitments. Western Union has a current ratio of 0.44, implying that it has not enough working capital to pay out debt commitments in time. Debt can assist Western Union until it has trouble settling it off, either with new capital or with free cash flow. So, Western Union's shareholders could walk away with nothing if the company can't fulfill its legal obligations to repay debt. However, a more frequent occurrence is when companies like Western Union sell additional shares at bargain prices, diluting existing shareholders. Debt, in this case, can be an excellent and much better tool for Western to invest in growth at high rates of return. When we think about Western Union's use of debt, we should always consider it together with cash and equity. | |
| Over 96.0% of Western Union outstanding shares are owned by institutional investors | |
| Latest headline from seekingalpha.com: Western Union Q1 2024 Earnings Preview |
Western Union Returns Distribution Density
The distribution of Western Union's historical returns is an attempt to chart the uncertainty of Western Union's future price movements. The chart of the probability distribution of Western Union daily returns describes the distribution of returns around its average expected value. We use Western Union Co price's Value At Risk and its Upside Potential as a relative measure of the distribution. The graph of the distribution of Western Union returns is essential to provide solid investment advice for Western Union.
| Mean Return | 0.20 | Value At Risk | -1.98 | Potential Upside | 2.15 | Standard Deviation | 1.51 |
Return Density |
| Distribution |
Investment risk management requires an estimate of the probability of extreme price changes. Therefore, the correct representation of the distribution of Western Union historical returns presented in an easy-to-digest graphical form helps investors and money managers understand the risk-reward trade-off of different investement strategies.
Western Stock Institutional Investors
Have you ever been surprised when a price of an equity instrument such as Western Union is soaring high without any particular reason? This is usually happening because many institutional investors are aggressively trading Western Union Co backward and forwards among themselves. Western Union's institutional investor refers to the entity that pools money to purchase Western Union's securities or originates loans. Institutional investors include commercial and private banks, credit unions, insurance companies, pension funds, hedge funds, endowments, and mutual funds. Operating companies that invest excess capital in these types of assets may also be included in the term and may influence corporate governance by exercising voting rights in their investments.
| Shares | Allianz Asset Management Ag | 2023-12-31 | 7.5 M | Schroder Investment Management Group | 2023-12-31 | 6 M | Discerene Group Lp | 2023-12-31 | 6 M | Marshall Wace Asset Management Ltd | 2023-12-31 | 5 M | Bank Of New York Mellon Corp | 2023-12-31 | 5 M | Dimensional Fund Advisors, Inc. | 2023-12-31 | 4.5 M | Morgan Stanley - Brokerage Accounts | 2023-12-31 | 4.3 M | Amvescap Plc. | 2023-12-31 | 3.3 M | Goldman Sachs Group Inc | 2023-12-31 | 3.3 M | Vanguard Group Inc | 2023-12-31 | 40.9 M | Blackrock Inc | 2023-12-31 | 36.6 M |
Western Union Cash Flow Accounts
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 (projected) | ||
| Change In Cash | 477.1M | (9.4M) | (32.2M) | (70.2M) | (58.8M) | (55.9M) | |
| Free Cash Flow | 786.9M | 720.7M | 830.7M | 373.4M | 635.3M | 638.0M | |
| Depreciation | 257.7M | 225.6M | 208.2M | 183.8M | 183.6M | 218.2M | |
| Other Non Cash Items | 118.4M | 145.8M | 149.6M | (139.4M) | 73.5M | 60.0M | |
| Capital Expenditures | 127.7M | 156.8M | 214.6M | 208.2M | 147.8M | 173.0M | |
| Net Income | 1.1B | 744.3M | 805.8M | 910.6M | 626M | 596.5M | |
| End Period Cash Flow | 1.5B | 1.4B | 2.1B | 2.0B | 1.3B | 1.5B | |
| Dividends Paid | 340.8M | 370.3M | 381.6M | 364.2M | 349M | 336.5M | |
| Change To Netincome | 93.9M | 159.7M | 208.9M | 88.7M | 102.0M | 101.0M | |
| Investments | 48.3M | (4M) | 402.9M | 525.5M | 82.3M | 81.2M | |
| Net Borrowings | (209M) | (165M) | (63.3M) | (395M) | (355.5M) | (337.7M) |
Western Union Greeks
Most traded equities are subject to two types of risk - systematic (i.e., market) and unsystematic (i.e., nonmarket or company-specific) risk. Unsystematic risk is the risk that events specific to Western Union or IT Services sector will adversely affect the stock's price. This type of risk can be diversified away by owning several different stocks in different industries whose stock prices have shown a small correlation to each other. On the other hand, systematic risk is the risk that Western Union's price will be affected by overall stock market movements and cannot be diversified away. So, no matter how many positions you have, you cannot eliminate market risk. However, you can measure a Western stock's historical response to market movements and buy it if you are comfortable with its volatility direction. Beta and standard deviation are two commonly used measures to help you make the right decision.
α | Alpha over NYSE Composite | 0.1 | |
β | Beta against NYSE Composite | 1.04 | |
σ | Overall volatility | 1.52 | |
Ir | Information ratio | 0.07 |
Western Union Volatility Alert
Western Union Co has relatively low volatility with skewness of -0.86 and kurtosis of 2.14. Understanding different market volatility trends often help investors to time the market. Properly using volatility indicators enable traders to measure Western Union's stock risk against market volatility during both bullish and bearish trends. The higher level of volatility that comes with bear markets can directly impact Western Union's stock price while adding stress to investors as they watch their shares' value plummet. This usually forces investors to rebalance their portfolios by buying different financial instruments as prices fall.Western Union Fundamentals Vs Peers
Comparing Western Union's fundamentals to the average values of its peers is one of the most widely used and accepted methods of equity analyses. It helps to analyze Western Union's direct or indirect competition across all of the common fundamentals between Western Union and the related equities. This way, we can detect undervalued stocks with similar characteristics as Western Union or determine the stocks which would be an excellent addition to an existing portfolio. Peer analysis of Western Union's fundamental indicators could also be used in its relative valuation, which is a method of valuing Western Union by comparing valuation metrics with those of similar companies.
| Better Than Average | Worse Than Average | Compare Western Union to competition |
| Fundamentals | Western Union | Peer Average |
| Return On Equity | 1.31 | -0.31 |
| Return On Asset | 0.0634 | -0.14 |
| Profit Margin | 0.14 % | (1.27) % |
| Operating Margin | 0.16 % | (5.51) % |
| Current Valuation | 5.98 B | 16.62 B |
| Shares Outstanding | 340.37 M | 571.82 M |
| Shares Owned By Insiders | 0.30 % | 10.09 % |
| Shares Owned By Institutions | 96.45 % | 39.21 % |
| Number Of Shares Shorted | 21.16 M | 4.71 M |
| Price To Earning | 6.92 X | 28.72 X |
| Price To Book | 9.37 X | 9.51 X |
| Price To Sales | 1.03 X | 11.42 X |
| Revenue | 4.36 B | 9.43 B |
| Gross Profit | 1.85 B | 27.38 B |
| EBITDA | 817.5 M | 3.9 B |
| Net Income | 626 M | 570.98 M |
| Cash And Equivalents | 1.29 B | 2.7 B |
| Cash Per Share | 3.05 X | 5.01 X |
| Total Debt | 2.5 B | 5.32 B |
| Debt To Equity | 4.94 % | 48.70 % |
| Current Ratio | 0.45 X | 2.16 X |
| Book Value Per Share | 1.37 X | 1.93 K |
| Cash Flow From Operations | 783.1 M | 971.22 M |
| Short Ratio | 5.20 X | 4.00 X |
| Earnings Per Share | 1.68 X | 3.12 X |
| Price To Earnings To Growth | 3.08 X | 4.89 X |
| Target Price | 13.13 | |
| Number Of Employees | 9 K | 18.84 K |
| Beta | 0.86 | -0.15 |
| Market Capitalization | 4.56 B | 19.03 B |
| Total Asset | 8.2 B | 29.47 B |
| Retained Earnings | (389.1 M) | 9.33 B |
| Working Capital | 33.2 M | 1.48 B |
Note: Disposition of 476 shares by Cherie Axelrod of Western Union at 12.79 subject to Rule 16b-3 [view details]
Western Union Market Momentum
Traders often use several daily momentume indicators to supplement a more traditional technical analysis when analyzing securities such as Western . With many different options, investors must choose the best indicators for them and familiarize themselves with how they work. We suggest combining traditional momentum indicators with more near-term forms of technical analysis such as Accumulation Distribution or Daily Balance Of Power. With their quantitative nature, daily value technical indicators can also be incorporated into your automated trading systems.
About Western Union Buy or Sell Advice
When is the right time to buy or sell Western Union Co? Buying financial instruments such as Western Stock isn't very hard. However, what challenging for most investors is doing it at the right time to beat the market. Proper market timing is something most people cannot do without sophisticated tools, which help to isolate the right opportunities. Macroaxis provides hands-on modules to deliver winning trades and diversify your portfolios on a daily basis. Most of our advising modules are very easy to use and apply.
Please read more on our stock advisor page.| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 (projected) | Total Liabilities | 8.5B | 8.0B | 7.7B | 7.7B | Other Stockholder Equity | 941M | 995.9M | 1.0B | 555.1M |
Use Investing Ideas to Build Portfolios
In addition to having Western Union in your portfolios, you can quickly add positions using our predefined set of ideas and optimize them against your very unique investing style. A single investing idea is a collection of funds, stocks, ETFs, or cryptocurrencies that are programmatically selected from a pull of investment themes. After you determine your investment opportunity, you can then find an optimal portfolio that will maximize potential returns on the chosen idea or minimize its exposure to market volatility.Did You Try This Idea?
Run Diversified Assets Thematic Idea Now
Diversified Assets
Pablicly traded close-end funds and other entities backed by different types of diversified investments. The Diversified Assets theme has 39 constituents at this time.
You can either use a buy-and-hold strategy to lock in the entire theme or actively trade it to take advantage of the short-term price volatility of individual constituents. Macroaxis can help you discover thousands of investment opportunities in different asset classes. In addition, you can partner with us for reliable portfolio optimization as you plan to utilize Diversified Assets Theme or any other thematic opportunities.
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Check out Western Union Analyst Recommendation to compare Macroaxis Buy or Sell Recommendation with the current analyst consensus. To check ratings for multiple equity instruments, please use the Instant Ratings tool. You can also try the Volatility Analysis module to get historical volatility and risk analysis based on latest market data.
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When running Western Union's price analysis, check to measure Western Union's market volatility, profitability, liquidity, solvency, efficiency, growth potential, financial leverage, and other vital indicators. We have many different tools that can be utilized to determine how healthy Western Union is operating at the current time. Most of Western Union's value examination focuses on studying past and present price action to predict the probability of Western Union's future price movements. You can analyze the entity against its peers and the financial market as a whole to determine factors that move Western Union's price. Additionally, you may evaluate how the addition of Western Union to your portfolios can decrease your overall portfolio volatility.
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Is Western Union's industry expected to grow? Or is there an opportunity to expand the business' product line in the future? Factors like these will boost the valuation of Western Union. If investors know Western will grow in the future, the company's valuation will be higher. The financial industry is built on trying to define current growth potential and future valuation accurately. All the valuation information about Western Union listed above have to be considered, but the key to understanding future value is determining which factors weigh more heavily than others.
Quarterly Earnings Growth (0.46) | Dividend Share 0.94 | Earnings Share 1.68 | Revenue Per Share 11.75 | Quarterly Revenue Growth (0.04) |
The market value of Western Union is measured differently than its book value, which is the value of Western that is recorded on the company's balance sheet. Investors also form their own opinion of Western Union's value that differs from its market value or its book value, called intrinsic value, which is Western Union's true underlying value. Investors use various methods to calculate intrinsic value and buy a stock when its market value falls below its intrinsic value. Because Western Union's market value can be influenced by many factors that don't directly affect Western Union's underlying business (such as a pandemic or basic market pessimism), market value can vary widely from intrinsic value.
Please note, there is a significant difference between Western Union's value and its price as these two are different measures arrived at by different means. Investors typically determine if Western Union is a good investment by looking at such factors as earnings, sales, fundamental and technical indicators, competition as well as analyst projections. However, Western Union's price is the amount at which it trades on the open market and represents the number that a seller and buyer find agreeable to each party.