Critical Contrast: WEX (WEX) & The Competition

WEX (NYSE:WEX) is one of 342 public companies in the “Financial Services” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its rivals? We will compare WEX to related companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for WEX and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
WEX	0	8	5	0	2.38
WEX Competitors	1968	6868	11619	443	2.50

WEX currently has a consensus price target of $187.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1.25%. As a group, “Financial Services” companies have a potential downside of 1.58%. Given WEX’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe WEX is more favorable than its rivals.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

97.5% of WEX shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.0% of shares of all “Financial Services” companies are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of WEX shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 21.9% of shares of all “Financial Services” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

WEX has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WEX’s rivals have a beta of 2.49, meaning that their average share price is 149% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares WEX and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
WEX	14.05%	45.74%	3.66%
WEX Competitors	-409.62%	-15.98%	-6.09%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares WEX and its rivals revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
WEX	$2.66 billion	$304.10 million	18.40
WEX Competitors	$9.19 billion	$1.07 billion	8.03

WEX’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than WEX. WEX is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

WEX rivals beat WEX on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

WEX Company Profile

WEX Inc. operates a commerce platform in the United States and internationally. The Mobility segment offers fleet vehicle payment solutions, transaction processing, and information management services; and provides account activation and account retention services; authorization and billing inquiries, and account maintenance services; account management; credit and collections services; merchant services; analytics solutions; and ancillary services and offerings. This segment markets its products directly and indirectly to businesses and government agencies with fleets of commercial vehicles; and indirectly through co-branded and private label relationships. The Corporate Payments segment provides payment solutions, including embedded payments; and accounts payable automation and spend management solutions. This segment also markets its products directly and indirectly to customers in travel, fintech, insurance, consumer bill pay, and media verticals. The Benefits Solutions segment offers software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for consumer directed healthcare benefits and full-service benefit enrollment solutions. In addition, its SaaS platform includes embedded payment solutions and plan administration services for consumer-directed health benefits; COBRA accounts; and benefit enrollment and administration services. Further, it offers custodial and depository services for health savings accounts; and markets its products through third-party administrators, financial institutions, payroll providers, and health plans. The company was formerly known as Wright Express Corporation and changed its name to WEX Inc. in October 2012. WEX Inc. was founded in 1983 and is based in Portland, Maine.