Mom please send money by Western Union

How many of you when in college or in the service ran into a temporary cash flow problem and placed the call:  "Mom can you please send me a few bucks by Western Union to tide me over?"

The Western Union Company (WU) is a leading provider of global money-transfer services. Together with its affiliates, Orlandi Valuta and Vigo, Western Union provides consumers with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send and receive money around the world, as well as send payments and purchase money orders.

They now have over 410,000 locations in over 200 countries.  I know in my local area some of the customer services desks at the grocery stores are WU locations.  Transaction fees account for 79% of their revenues and consumer to consumer transactions are up over 10%

I noticed this stock on my Barchart screening of S&P 500 companies experiencing recent upward price momentum.  The stocks enjoys a 96% Barchart technical buy signal with the price up 12.67% for the quarter, 3.87% for the month and 2.48% for the last week.  The Relative Strength Index is 52.58% and rising.  The stock trades around $18.72 well above its 50 day moving average of $18.10.

Wall Street brokerage analysts love this stock with 18 buy and 9 hold reports published for their brokers to push to clients.  Although the analysts only look for a 1.60% increase in sales this year and a 4.10% increase next year they have good earnings estimates of an EPS increase of 7.80% this year, 7.90% next year and a 12.46% annual increase for at least the next 5 years.

The general investing public overwhelmingly favors this stock with the CAPS members on Motley Fool voting 1,500 to 44 that the stock will beat the market.  The more experienced All Stars also vote 484 to 6 for the same result.

Of the Wall Street columnists Fool follows all of the last 16 articles have been positive.

If your portfolio needs an S&P 500 core positions consider Western Union (WU) :

• 96% Barchart technical buy signal
• Relative Strength Index 62.58%  and rising
• Wall Street brokerages releasing positive reports based on 5 year EPS growth of double digits
• Wide and positive general investor sentiment
• Financial columnists writing positive articles

Jim Van Meerten is an advisor to Marketocracy Capital Management who uses his model portfolios not only to manage their mutual funds but also their clients Separately Managed Accounts. You can read his blogs about those model portfolios and investing here and on Barchart Portfolio Blogs. Please leave a comment below or email JimVanMeerten@gmail.com.

Disclosure: Jim Van Meerten through Marketocracy Capital Management has an interest in the stocks mentioned in this blog.