Castleark Management LLC Makes New $931,000 Investment in TransUnion (NYSE:TRU)

Castleark Management LLC acquired a new position in TransUnion (NYSE:TRU - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 8,890 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $931,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in TransUnion by 17.4% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 19,180,562 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $2,008,205,000 after purchasing an additional 2,840,800 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of TransUnion by 307.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,540,896 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $475,432,000 after acquiring an additional 3,427,199 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of TransUnion by 16.8% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,426,510 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $463,456,000 after acquiring an additional 635,581 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of TransUnion by 24.1% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,468,854 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $257,250,000 after acquiring an additional 674,187 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in TransUnion by 2.4% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 3,154,262 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $330,251,000 after acquiring an additional 75,410 shares during the period.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on TRU shares. UBS Group started coverage on shares of TransUnion in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. They set a "neutral" rating and a $110.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on TransUnion from $103.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on TransUnion from $97.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wolfe Research raised TransUnion from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $130.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of TransUnion from $80.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $106.38.

TransUnion Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of TransUnion stock traded up $1.25 on Friday, hitting $99.67. 1,520,660 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,545,255. TransUnion has a one year low of $61.46 and a one year high of $113.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.43 billion, a PE ratio of 86.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.60. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $103.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $91.24.

TransUnion (NYSE:TRU - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The business services provider reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.06 billion. TransUnion had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 5.47%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.80 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that TransUnion will post 3.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TransUnion Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a $0.105 dividend. This represents a $0.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. TransUnion's payout ratio is presently 36.52%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other TransUnion news, Director George M. Awad sold 12,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $1,200,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 27,026 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,702,600. This trade represents a 30.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Steven M. Chaouki sold 1,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.73, for a total transaction of $151,095.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 20,590 shares of company stock worth $2,084,633. Company insiders own 0.22% of the company's stock.

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.