Critical Review: WEX (WEX) vs. Its Peers

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

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	N/A	N/A	N/A
WEX Competitors	-249.09%	-54.59%	-6.19%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for WEX and its rivals, as provided 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 price target 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 probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe WEX is more favorable than its rivals.

Risk and Volatility

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

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares WEX and its rivals top-line 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 rivals. 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.

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 company insiders. Comparatively, 22.1% 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 stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

WEX beats its rivals 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.