Piper Jaffray Maintains Rating, PT On WU

Piper Jaffray, citing a steady quarter, is maintaining its Overweight rating and its $26 price target on Western Union Co. WU. According to Piper Jaffray, “WU beat our 1Q adjusted EPS estimate and consensus by a penny as revenue growth of 4% exceeded our 2% forecast. WU also affirmed its full-year '11 revenue/EPS guidance. However, C2C transaction growth was 7% in the 1Q from 9% in the 4Q10, though we believe global political unrest in Africa and tougher domestic comparisons both played a role. We are tweaking higher our '11/'12 estimates on higher share repurchases. However, at this point, we are tempering our expectations for upside to our estimates resulting from potentially faster transaction growth than our forecast. We maintain our OW rating as we believe WU is an attractive play on recovering global labor markets.” WU closed yesterday at $21.53.