Point72 Hong Kong Ltd Acquires New Position in TransUnion (NYSE:TRU)

Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 18,151 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,683,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of TRU. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of TransUnion by 52.5% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,749,849 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $625,779,000 after purchasing an additional 2,323,339 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of TransUnion in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $180,011,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of TransUnion by 30.6% in the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 3,370,742 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $312,501,000 after purchasing an additional 789,497 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of TransUnion by 11.1% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,044,865 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $467,709,000 after purchasing an additional 503,969 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Independent Franchise Partners LLP raised its position in shares of TransUnion by 22.0% in the 4th quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 2,086,050 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $193,398,000 after purchasing an additional 375,736 shares during the last quarter.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other TransUnion news, insider Steven M. Chaouki sold 1,000 shares of TransUnion stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.31, for a total transaction of $83,310.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 77,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,447,610.83. The trade was a 1.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Venkat Achanta sold 1,821 shares of TransUnion stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.74, for a total transaction of $174,342.54. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 105,443 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,095,112.82. This trade represents a 1.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 4,021 shares of company stock valued at $359,761. 0.22% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

TransUnion Price Performance

NYSE:TRU opened at $91.19 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.70. The firm has a market cap of $17.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $81.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $91.13. TransUnion has a 1-year low of $66.38 and a 1-year high of $113.17.

TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The business services provider reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. TransUnion had a net margin of 6.80% and a return on equity of 15.85%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.92 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that TransUnion will post 3.99 EPS for the current year.

TransUnion announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program 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 reacquire up to 2.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

TransUnion Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 22nd will be issued a $0.115 dividend. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 22nd. TransUnion’s payout ratio is presently 24.47%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on TRU. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of TransUnion from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of TransUnion from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of TransUnion from $120.00 to $112.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of TransUnion from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of TransUnion from $130.00 to $117.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $109.38.

TransUnion Profile

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.