Western Union's Q2 profit tops Street view

For the full year, the world's largest payment transfer company said it expected earnings of between $1.31 and $1.36 per share, excluding restructuring charges. Analysts were expecting a profit of $1.32 per share.

In May, Western Union said it would cut about 175 jobs globally and streamline its senior management structure, seen as the first major move by CEO-elect Hikmet Ersek after being named to the top job.

Chief Executive Christina Gold said she would retire effective September 1, and would be succeeded by chief operating officer Ersek.

Western Union, which competes with MoneyGram International , said it handled 53 million consumer-to-consumer transactions in the second quarter, a 9 percent increase from the prior year.

"Transaction trends increased, and we delivered solid margins," Ersek said in a statement.

For the second quarter, net income was $221 million, or 33 cents a share, compared with $220.2 million, or 31 cents a share, last year.

Excluding restructuring charges, Western Union earned 37 cents a share, on a constant-currency basis. The company incurred $35 million in restructuring expenses in the second quarter.

Total revenue rose 2 percent to $1.27 billion during the quarter.

Analysts on average were looking for a profit of 32 cents a share, before items, on revenue of $1.28 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue from Western Union's consumer-to-consumer segment, representing 84 percent of the company's revenue, was $1.1 billion, an increase of 2 percent, on a constant-currency basis.

This was the third consecutive quarter of accelerating transaction growth, Western Union said in a statement.

Shares of the company were up about 2 percent at $17.00 in trading before the bell on Tuesday. They closed at $16.68 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Brenton Cordeiro in Bangalore; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott)

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