One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$29.01 our estimate vs market $6.85
Wall Street consensus: $7.09 (-75.6% lower than our fair-value estimate)
76% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
The Western Union Company
WU · NYQ · Financial Services · Credit Services
Current price
$6.85
52-week range
$6.27 - $10.35
Market cap
$2.14B
Balance sheet
Stretched
5.30x Adequate
Net debt $1.78B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
2 Risks
3 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Returns 44.0% on equity, ahead of 80% of its peers.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
- Risk Insider ownership is only 0.9% (peer median: 7.7%).
- Risk Operating margin compressed from 19.8% to 13.0% over 3 years.
What this company does
The Western Union Company
The Western Union Company is a global business that helps people move money, making most of its revenue (the total money a company brings in from sales) from fees on international transfers. People working in one country use its services to send money to family in another, either from a physical store or through its digital app. The company's ability to grow its online services is important as it competes with newer, all-digital payment companies.
How the company got here
Founded in 1851 as a telegraph company, Western Union built the first telegraph line that crossed the entire continent. It later introduced the world's first money transfer service in 1871, which became its main business. After facing financial difficulties in the 1980s as telegraphs became obsolete, the company refocused entirely on its money transfer services. In 2006, it became an independent public company, and today it is known for moving money for people and businesses around the world.
What it actually does
Western Union is a global company that helps people and businesses send and receive money. Think of it as a service for someone working in one country who needs to send money back home to their family in another country. Customers can do this in person at one of their many agent locations, like a retail store, or through their website and mobile app. The company makes money by charging a fee for each transaction and also by making a small amount on the currency exchange (the process of converting one country's money to another's).
Consumer Money Transfer
This is the company's main business and makes up the large majority of its revenue. It's the classic money-sending service for individuals to send funds to other people, usually across international borders. A person can walk into an agent location and pay with cash, or use the company's website or app, to send money. The person receiving the money can then typically pick it up in cash at a location in their country, have it deposited into a bank account, or receive it in a digital wallet.
Consumer Services
This is a smaller but growing part of the company that offers other financial services, mostly in the United States. This includes services like paying bills to utility companies or other businesses, and buying money orders (a secure alternative to sending cash). It also offers prepaid cards and digital wallets, which are like online accounts where you can store money. This segment aims to provide more financial tools to its existing money-transfer customers.
What management is betting on now
The company's leadership is focused on a strategy to become a "digital-first" company. This means encouraging more customers to send money using their website and mobile app instead of only relying on physical locations. They are also expanding their digital wallet services and other online financial products to build deeper relationships with customers. The goal is to use their well-known brand and large retail network to support and grow their digital offerings for the future.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$205.10M
FY2024 Q4
$119.70M
FY2025 Q1
$144.80M
FY2025 Q2
$-7.80M
FY2025 Q3
$252.70M
FY2025 Q4
$115.50M
FY2026 Q1
$102.60M
FY2026 Q2
$94.60M
Revenue
$1.01B
Net income
$76.70M
Diluted EPS
0.24
Operating cash flow
$104.90M
Free cash flow
$94.60M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$982.70M
Net income
$64.70M
Diluted EPS
0.20
Operating cash flow
$109.00M
Free cash flow
$102.60M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.01B
Net income
$114.40M
Diluted EPS
0.36
Operating cash flow
$135.40M
Free cash flow
$115.50M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.03B
Net income
$139.60M
Diluted EPS
0.43
Operating cash flow
$260.40M
Free cash flow
$252.70M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.03B
Net income
$122.10M
Diluted EPS
0.37
Operating cash flow
$-300.00K
Free cash flow
$-7.80M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$983.60M
Net income
$123.50M
Diluted EPS
0.36
Operating cash flow
$148.20M
Free cash flow
$144.80M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.06B
Net income
$385.70M
Diluted EPS
1.14
Operating cash flow
$134.00M
Free cash flow
$119.70M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.04B
Net income
$264.80M
Diluted EPS
0.78
Operating cash flow
$212.10M
Free cash flow
$205.10M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $29.01 vs current price $6.85
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $7.09 (-75.6% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $29.01 a share — about 323.5% above today's price of $6.85, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Stretched
Net debt $1.8B. Interest coverage 5.3x.
Net debt
$1.78B
Interest coverage
5.30x
The Western Union Company's profit covers its interest bill about 5.3 times over. which is weaker than most peers shown here.
Stretched
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
WU
BASELINE
The Western Union Company
Total debt $2.70B Interest coverage 5.30x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $2.81B Interest coverage 6.27x +18% vs WU Carries about 1.2x more debt cushion than WU.
Total debt $38.26M Interest coverage 10.18x +92% vs WU Carries about 1.9x more debt cushion than WU.
Total debt $135.42M Interest coverage 5.75x +9% vs WU Has roughly the same debt cushion as WU.
Total debt $483.70M Interest coverage 30.29x +472% vs WU Carries about 5.7x more debt cushion than WU.
What you should know
The case for and against WU
3 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Returns 44.0% on equity, ahead of 80% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
-
Trades at 5.5x P/E vs peer median 19.2x (71.2% cheaper).
Risks
-
Insider ownership is only 0.9% (peer median: 7.7%).
-
Operating margin compressed from 19.8% to 13.0% over 3 years.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
5.52x
Forward P/E
4.53x
P/B
2.33x
P/S
0.53x
EV/EBITDA
4.70x
PEG ratio
11.78x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
35.1%
Operating margin
13.0%
Net margin
9.8%
ROE
44.0%
ROA
5.1%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
2.95x
Current ratio
0.28x
Quick ratio
0.22x
Total debt
$2.70B
Total cash
$919.80M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$4.04B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
-5.5%
EPS TTM
1.24
EPS 5Y CAGR
-13.4%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$609.70M
Free CF TTM
$505.20M
FCF margin
12.5%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
13.7%
Payout ratio
75.8%
Last ex-div date
2026-09-16