Financial Survey: Western Union (NYSE:WU) versus Freightos (NASDAQ:CRGO)

Freightos (NASDAQ:CRGO) and Western Union (NYSE:WU) are both business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Freightos and Western Union’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Freightos	-65.65%	-44.81%	-30.10%
Western Union	10.88%	55.94%	6.39%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Freightos and Western Union”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Freightos	$29.46 million	2.62	-$17.52 million	($0.39)	-3.85
Western Union	$4.05 billion	0.55	$499.60 million	$1.36	5.24

Western Union has higher revenue and earnings than Freightos. Freightos is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Western Union, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Freightos and Western Union, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Freightos	1	0	1	0	2.00
Western Union	6	7	0	0	1.54

Freightos presently has a consensus price target of $3.00, indicating a potential upside of 100.00%. Western Union has a consensus price target of $8.82, indicating a potential upside of 23.68%. Given Freightos’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Freightos is more favorable than Western Union.

Volatility and Risk

Freightos has a beta of 0.28, suggesting that its stock price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Western Union has a beta of 0.46, suggesting that its stock price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

22.7% of Freightos shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.8% of Western Union shares are owned by institutional investors. 19.6% of Freightos shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of Western Union shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Western Union beats Freightos on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Freightos

Freightos Limited, together with its subsidiaries, operates a vendor-neutral booking and payment platform for international freight. It operates WebCargo, a platform for connecting carriers and forwarders; and Freightos.com, a platform for connecting service providers to importers/exporters. The company also offers software-as-a-service solutions, such as WebCargo Air for airline rates and ebookings; WebCargo AcceleRate, a multi-modal rate repository; data services; and WebCargo Airline Control Panel that enables airlines to control bookings and optimize pricing with real-time booking analytics. In addition, it provides digital customs brokerage services. The company is based in Jerusalem, Israel.

About Western Union

The Western Union Company provides money movement and payment services worldwide. The company operates through Consumer Money Transfer and Consumer Services segments. The Consumer Money Transfer segment facilitates money transfers for international cross-border and intra-country transfers, primarily through a network of retail agent locations, as well as through websites and mobile devices. The Consumer Services segments offers bill payment services, which facilitate payments for consumers, businesses, and other organizations, as well as money order services, retail foreign exchange services, prepaid cards, lending partnerships, and digital wallets. The company was founded in 1851 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.