TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) Price Target Raised to $89.00

TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) had its target price upped by Needham & Company LLC from $87.00 to $89.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the business services provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on TRU. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on TransUnion from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on TransUnion from $76.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on TransUnion from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. StockNews.com raised TransUnion from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on TransUnion from $69.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $83.60.

TransUnion Trading Up 0.3 %

TRU opened at $74.49 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $14.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -52.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.61. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $76.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $67.85. TransUnion has a one year low of $42.09 and a one year high of $82.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The business services provider reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $977.62 million. TransUnion had a positive return on equity of 14.22% and a negative net margin of 7.02%. On average, equities analysts forecast that TransUnion will post 3.31 EPS for the current year.

TransUnion Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $0.105 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 6th. This represents a $0.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.56%. TransUnion’s dividend payout ratio is currently -29.37%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Steven M. Chaouki sold 1,775 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.30, for a total transaction of $144,307.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 75,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,105,548.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Steven M. Chaouki sold 1,775 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.30, for a total transaction of $144,307.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 75,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,105,548.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Richard Dane Mauldin sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.10, for a total value of $117,150.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 22,033 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,720,777.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 15,275 shares of company stock worth $1,204,538 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.22% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of TransUnion

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TRU. Capital International Investors acquired a new position in shares of TransUnion in the 4th quarter valued at $663,001,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of TransUnion by 570.4% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,029,897 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $483,024,000 after acquiring an additional 5,981,271 shares during the period. Meritage Group LP increased its position in shares of TransUnion by 56.5% in the 4th quarter. Meritage Group LP now owns 5,030,424 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $345,640,000 after acquiring an additional 1,815,540 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of TransUnion in the 4th quarter valued at $90,682,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of TransUnion by 27.9% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,744,770 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $326,013,000 after acquiring an additional 1,035,634 shares during the period.

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.