It started with four simple words: “What hath God wrought?”
The question, a biblical quote from the Book of Numbers, was on May 24, 1844, the first official Morse Code message transmitted in the U.S., to open the Baltimore–Washington telegraph line, marking the dawn of a new technological age.
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Seven years later a bunch of telegraph companies came together to form the iconic business known as Western Union (WU) .
Yes, the telegram, a favorite dramatic device in countless movies, TV shows, and songs, usually bringing bad news.
Just ask the Capris who made the musical plea “Baby, Come Home to Me” in 1959 via telegram, or the Five Americans, whose 1967 hit “Western Union” told the sad tale of a busted romance, complete with sound effects.
Now, some of you out there must be wondering why you should be interested in a company that seems as timely as buggy whips and snuff boxes.
Western Union CEO cites difficult macro backdrop
But Western Union has moved on from dots and dashes and now provides global financial services, specializing in cross-border money movement and payments.
“Back 150 years ago, it was on the vanguard of technology,” TheStreet Pro’s Bret Jensen said in his Sept. 14 column. “Now most would consider it stodgy, and while few use its services anymore, it still has a core niche.”
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“In fact, the company is so well known, just by saying its name invokes its yellow and black corporate banner for most — even by those that haven’t used its services in decades,” he added.
In August Bloomberg reported that the company was considering issuing a stablecoin, a cryptocurrency pegged to a stable asset, like a fiat currency — like the dollar — or a commodity.
Such a coin could be “almost like a savings account in US dollars” for customers in other countries where regulators will allow the activity, Chief Executive Devin McGranahan told the news service.
In July President Donald Trump signed a law regulating stablecoins and many financial firms are now figuring out how to leverage the product, Bloomberg reported.
WU CEO: ‘Reasonable quarter, difficult macro backdrop’
Western Union missed Wall Street’s expectations in July and lowered its full-year 2025 outlook as earnings were hit by a slowdown in its North America retail business and reduced revenue from Iraq.
“We reported a reasonable quarter against a difficult macro backdrop as we continue to implement our evolved 2025 strategy, which is focused on returning [Western Union] to sustainable, profitable revenue growth,” McGranahan told analysts during the second-quarter earnings call.
Western Union, which is scheduled to report Q3 results next month, has seen its stock slide 20% this year and nearly 30% from 2024.
“We remain optimistic about the long-term outlook as our investment in becoming market competitive over the past two years has provided a foundation for what we believe will be future share gains propelling revenue growth in both our retail and digital businesses,” McGranahan said.
Jensen said that the company’s North American footprint will expand, pending the closing of last month’s announced acquisition of International Money Express, a deal valued at roughly at $500 million.
More recently, Western Union and dLocal DLO, a Uruguayan fintech, unveiled an alliance to enable digital-payment methods on WU’s online platforms in Latin America.
Western Union’s consumer services unit primarily includes bill-payment services in the U.S. and Argentina, as well as money order services, Jensen said.
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The larger Consumer Money Transfer business has roughly 380,000 agent locations conducting in-person transactions, although digital transactions are becoming an increasingly larger portion of its business, Jensen explained.
“Western Union’s CMT revenues have declined markedly since the close of 2021,” the investor and entrepreneur said. That’s occurred as the Trump administration’s immigration policies have reduced remittances to Mexico. And service to Ukraine and Russia has been suspended due to the war there, Jensen said.
TheStreet Pro’s Jensen: WU option-trade idea
In his column Jensen laid out a way to initiate a position in Western Union using a covered-call strategy.
“Selecting the February $8 call strikes, fashion a covered call order with a net debit in the $7.55 to $7.65 a share range (net stock price – option premium),” he said. “Liquidity is beyond solid with the options against this equity.”
This strategy, Jensen said, provides downside protection of 15% over the trade’s duration, which includes two dividend payments of 24 cents a share. “It also provides upside return potential of just over 11%, including dividends, even if the stock trades down 5% over its option duration,” he added.
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