Blue Trust Inc. Reduces Position in TransUnion (NYSE:TRU)

Blue Trust Inc. cut its holdings in TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) by 43.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 708 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 545 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in TransUnion were worth $66,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in TransUnion by 12.1% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,308,028 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $136,951,000 after purchasing an additional 140,952 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of TransUnion by 307.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,540,896 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $475,432,000 after purchasing an additional 3,427,199 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of TransUnion during the third quarter worth about $892,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in shares of TransUnion by 6,720.7% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 128,706 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $13,476,000 after purchasing an additional 126,819 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in TransUnion by 22.0% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 26,308 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,439,000 after buying an additional 4,743 shares during the last quarter.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other TransUnion news, insider Steven M. Chaouki sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.73, for a total transaction of $151,095.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 60,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,092,956.24. This trade represents a 2.42 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Todd C. Skinner sold 3,090 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.48, for a total value of $313,573.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 24,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,469,312.84. This trade represents a 11.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 6,590 shares of company stock worth $654,218 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TRU has been the subject of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on TransUnion from $115.00 to $112.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of TransUnion from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of TransUnion in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of TransUnion from $130.00 to $127.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of TransUnion in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $111.64.

TransUnion Trading Up 1.7 %

NYSE:TRU opened at $93.29 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.90, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.63. TransUnion has a 1 year low of $66.07 and a 1 year high of $113.17. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $94.72 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $98.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a current ratio of 1.70.

TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.03 billion. TransUnion had a net margin of 6.80% and a return on equity of 15.85%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that TransUnion will post 3.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TransUnion declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, February 13th that allows the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to purchase up to 2.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

TransUnion Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.115 per share. This is a positive change from TransUnion’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. TransUnion’s payout ratio is 31.51%.

About TransUnion

TransUnion operates as a global consumer credit reporting agency that provides risk and information solutions. The company operates through U.S. Markets, International, and Consumer Interactive segments. The U.S. Markets segment provides consumer reports, actionable insights, and analytic services to businesses, which uses its services to acquire new customers; assess consumer ability to pay for services; identify cross-selling opportunities; measure and manage debt portfolio risk; collect debt; verify consumer identities; and mitigate fraud risk.