(Reuters) - Western Union Co , the world's largest money-transfer company, reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as the company benefited from its digital money transfer services.
Revenue at the company's digital business, which includes westernunion.com and mobile money transfer, jumped 21 percent in the third quarter, accounting for nearly 6 percent of total revenue.
Western Union has cut prices and invested heavily in its online and mobile businesses to better compete with fast-growing rivals such as MoneyGram International Inc
The move is starting to pay off as the company has been eating into the market share of online rivals such as Xoom, by offering highly competitive foreign exchange rates and lower transaction fees, according to Evercore Partners.
Western Union forecast full-year earnings of $1.50 per share, the top end of its previous projection of $1.45-$1.50 per share.
Revenue from company's consumer-to-consumer business rose 2 percent to $1.15 billion during the quarter.
Consumer-to-consumer transactions account for about 80 percent of the company's revenue, with the rest coming from consumer payments to businesses and payments between businesses.
Western Union's third-quarter transaction volumes rose 5 percent. Remittances increased to $22.1 billion from $21.1 billion a year earlier.
The company's net income rose to $234.1 million, or 44 cents per share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30 from $214.4 million, or 39 cents per share, a year earlier.
Analysts on average had expected earnings of 38 cents per share on revenue of $1.43 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Total revenue rose 2 percent to $1.44 billion.
Englewood, Colorado-based Western Union's shares were up 2.4 percent at $17.10 after the bell on Thursday.
(Reporting By Neha Dimri in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
