Ariel Investments, an investment management company, released its “Ariel Focus Fund” third-quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the third quarter, the fund fell -5.87 % compared to a -3.16% and -3.27% decline for the Russell 1000 Value Index and the S&P 500 Index, respectively. Global markets fell in the third quarter. In this context, the government bond yield spiked, which put pressure on the equities and led the high values “magnificent seven” to lose their shine. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2023.
Ariel Focus Fund highlighted stocks like The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) in its Q3 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) offers money movement services to Consumer-to-Consumer and Business Solutions. On December 8, 2023, The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) stock closed at $11.94 per share. One-month return of The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) was 0.93%, and its shares lost 15.44% of their value over the last 52 weeks. The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) has a market capitalization of $4.35 billion.
Ariel Focus Fund made the following comment about The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) in its third 2023 investor letter:
“Global leader in money transfer services The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU), also advanced following a top- and bottom-line earnings beat and subsequent raise in full-year guidance. These results were aided by regulatory change in Iraq and margin expansion in the retail business. Meanwhile, management continues to return capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Although the company anticipates the macroeconomic environment will continue to slow, it reminded investors remittances have proved resilient in prior periods of economic contraction. At current levels, WU is trading at a discount to our estimate of private market value.”
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The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 27 hedge fund portfolios held The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) at the end of third quarter which was 31 in the previous quarter.
We discussed The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) in another article and shared the list of best cash app stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
