Prudential Financial Inc. Increases Stock Position in TransUnion (NYSE:TRU)

Prudential Financial Inc. grew its stake in TransUnion (NYSE:TRU - Free Report) by 2,390.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 258,611 shares of the business services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 248,225 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. owned about 0.13% of TransUnion worth $24,739,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in TransUnion by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,066,657 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,674,960,000 after buying an additional 241,019 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in TransUnion by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 54,292 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $5,033,000 after buying an additional 6,073 shares during the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new position in TransUnion in the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,184,000. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in TransUnion during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,269,000. Finally, TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of TransUnion by 13,496.4% in the 4th quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 11,421 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,059,000 after acquiring an additional 11,337 shares during the last quarter.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other TransUnion news, EVP Venkat Achanta sold 1,821 shares of TransUnion stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.74, for a total transaction of $174,342.54. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 105,443 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,095,112.82. The trade was a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Steven M. Chaouki sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.95, for a total transaction of $95,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 58,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,611,923.60. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 4,021 shares of company stock worth $383,041. 0.22% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on TRU. UBS Group lifted their price objective on TransUnion from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on TransUnion from $130.00 to $127.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of TransUnion from $135.00 to $126.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of TransUnion from $125.00 to $115.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut their price objective on shares of TransUnion from $115.00 to $112.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $114.08.

TransUnion Price Performance

TRU stock traded up $0.80 during trading on Monday, hitting $83.05. The stock had a trading volume of 2,347,912 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,604,804. TransUnion has a twelve month low of $66.07 and a twelve month high of $113.17. The company's 50-day moving average price is $91.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $97.03. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $16.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.88, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.70.

TransUnion (NYSE:TRU - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.14). TransUnion had a return on equity of 15.85% and a net margin of 6.80%. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.03 billion. As a group, research analysts predict that TransUnion will post 3.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TransUnion announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, February 13th that allows the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to buy up to 2.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

TransUnion Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 27th were issued a $0.115 dividend. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 27th. This is a boost from TransUnion's previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. TransUnion's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 31.51%.

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.