Western Union Boosts U.S. Agent Network, Adds Dollar General

The Western Union Co. (NYSE:WU) has tied up with Dollar General Corporation (NYSE:DG) , a chain of variety stores, which will enable money transfer at more than 15,400 locations throughout the 44 states in which Dollar General operates.

Customers will now be able to initiate international and domestic money transfers through the Western Union mobile app or by visiting westernunion.com. The funds can then be paid in person at Dollar General locations. Consumers can also receive the transferred amount at Dollar General stores.

Since 75% of the American population lives within a five-mile radius of a Dollar General, this tie-up will provide a vast and ready customer base for Western Union.

This service will also provide customers a mix of digital and retail channel of money transfer. Dollar General will boost Western Union’s already wide agent network location of 40,000 in the United States by an additional 30%.

The tie up is in line with the company’s strategic goal of maintaining a robust agent network, which is conveniently accessible as well as digitally connected and expand its competitive market share in the United States.

Western Union holds a leading position in the emerging money transfer market with a solid operating performance, constant cash flow and a balanced capital allocation strategy. The company is known for its quality services and strong brand equity along with an extensive compliance infrastructure.

The company is also in the process of streamlining its business operations by divesting its Speedpay unit to focus on cross-border money transfer.

The stock has gained 11.8% year to date compared with the industry’s rise of 22.1%.

Western Union currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Investors interested in the finance sector can look into some better-ranked stocks like Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (NYSE:FIS) and Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) . You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Fidelity National Information works as a financial services technology company worldwide. It sports a Zacks Rank #1. The company managed to deliver earnings beat in all the trailing four quarters at average of 2.72%.

Euronet provides payment and transaction processing and distribution solutions worldwide. It has a Zacks Rank of 2. The stock pulled off average four-quarter beat of 2.68%.

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