Head-To-Head Contrast: WEX (WEX) & Its Rivals

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

97.5% of WEX shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.2% of shares of all “Financial Services” companies are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of WEX shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 22.1% of shares of all “Financial Services” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares WEX and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
WEX	$2.79 billion	N/A	18.53
WEX Competitors	$273.64 million	-$98.00 million	8.66

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for WEX and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
WEX	0	8	5	0	2.38
WEX Competitors	1988	6910	11694	444	2.50

WEX presently has a consensus target price of $187.00, indicating a potential upside of 0.52%. As a group, “Financial Services” companies have a potential downside of 1.63%. Given WEX’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe WEX is more favorable than its peers.

Volatility & Risk

WEX has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WEX’s peers have a beta of -0.03, meaning that their average stock price is 103% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
WEX	N/A	N/A	N/A
WEX Competitors	-249.09%	-54.59%	-6.19%

Summary

WEX beats its peers on 8 of the 12 factors compared.

About WEX

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.