Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Western Union Boosts Mobile Payments with Walletron Tie-Up

Read MoreHide Full Article

In an effort to deepen its reach in the mobile payments space, money remittance company, Western Union Co. (WU - Free Report) , has entered into a tie-up with Walletron, Inc. Notably,  Walletron provides of bill presentment and payment capabilities via mobile wallets.

This move is in sync with the company’s continued efforts to make investments in the mobile payments space where it was virtually not present until a few years ago. The synergistic effect of its investments and contribution to earnings are reflected in the company’s share price which is up 20.8% year to date compared with a gain of just 4% for the Zacks categorized Financial Transaction Services industry. We expect the company’s shares to continue outperforming its sector given the continued investments in the digital space.  

During the recent earnings conference call, the company announced that it continues to see tremendous growth from the mobile app. It also continue to expand its digital assets, rolling out mobile apps in Canada and additional countries in Europe, giving it 16 transactional mobile apps in the market within 37 westernunion.com countries.

 



In addition, in the U.S. and the UK, the company has added a new omni-channel feature to its mobile apps. The customers can now fund 10 transactions from mobile apps via cards, accounts and also cash. This new feature allows consumers to start transactions on their smartphones and then pay with cash at agent locations, adding convenience and reducing time for in-store transactions.

We expect more investments in this space which is set to boom as evident by the recent survey –– Western Union’s Payments 2016 Money Mindset Index –– which showed that 27% of all consumers and 48% of Gen Y consumers are expected to pay more bills by a mobile device.

Coming back to the news, Walletron allows billers to open a new payment and presentment channel in a centralized location on smartphones via its moBills technology. The technology will send personalized notification, bill information to customers and at the same time allow them to make streamlined payments via their smartphones.

Walletron moBills operates within native mobile wallets that are preinstalled on leading iOS and Android devices. The moBills card allows them to view current bill information, pay bills, update notification preferences, view a copy of past bills and access their account page.

Western Union carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the same space are MasterCard Incorporated (MA - Free Report) , Global Payments Inc. (GPN - Free Report) and Vantiv Inc. . Each of these stocks carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank  stocks here.

MasterCard recorded positive surprises in each of the last four quarters, with an average beat of 8.56%.

Vantiv recorded positive surprises in each of the last four quarters, with an average beat of 4.53%.

Global Payments also delivered positive surprises in each of the last four quarters, with an average beat of 7.07%.

Confidential from Zacks

Beyond this Analyst Blog, would you like to see Zacks' best recommendations that are not available to the public? Our Executive VP, Steve Reitmeister, knows when key trades are about to be triggered and which of our experts has the hottest hand. Click to see them now>>


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


Mastercard Incorporated (MA) - free report >>

The Western Union Company (WU) - free report >>

Global Payments Inc. (GPN) - free report >>

Published in