Western Union Shares Rise On Earnings Report

Western Union stocks are trading up this morning going into the market opening as investors liked what they saw in the firm’s Q2 earnings report. For the three months ending in June, Western Union notched revenue of $1.4 billion and earnings per share of $.35 — a slight dip from Q1’s $.41. Adjusted earnings per share of $0.50 compares to $0.44 in the same period last year. The adjusted EPS outlook was increased to a range of $1.70 to $1.80 (previously $1.63 to $1.75), primarily due to improvements in foreign exchange rates and expected lower tax rates.

“Our globally diverse business continued to deliver solid performance,” said President and Chief Executive Officer Hikmet Ersek. “Digital remained strong, with westernunion.com money transfer transactions increasing 25 percent, and our Latin American money transfer and Speedpay U.S. electronic bill payments businesses provided robust growth.”

In other notable figures, Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) revenues increased 1 percent on a constant currency basis. Transactions were up 3 percent — pushed largely via transactions on westernunion.com, which represented 9 percent of total C2C revenue in the quarter.

Geographically,  Latin America, North America, and Europe were the most productive and active countries — declines from oil producing countries in the Middle East and Africa were also observable. C2C revenues were up 23 percent on a constant currency basis, on transaction growth of 25 percent.

Western Union Business Solutions revenues were down 1 percent on a constant currency basis, pushed largely by the termination of a contract during Q4 2016.

“We are pleased with the stability of the business. Our balance sheet remains strong, and we have returned approximately $540 million to shareholders year-to-date through share repurchases and dividends. We are also continuing to roll out the WU Way transformation program to drive additional operational efficiencies and aid growth acceleration over the coming years,” noted Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Raj Agrawal.