WEX (WEX) Competitors

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) and WEX (NYSE:WEX) are both business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, community ranking, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, risk and media sentiment.

Do analysts recommend GPN or WEX?

Global Payments currently has a consensus price target of $134.10, suggesting a potential upside of 58.10%. WEX has a consensus price target of $187.80, suggesting a potential upside of 48.01%. Given Global Payments' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Global Payments is more favorable than WEX.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Global Payments	1 Sell rating(s)	11 Hold rating(s)	14 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
WEX	0 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.25

Does the MarketBeat Community favor GPN or WEX?

Global Payments received 598 more outperform votes than WEX when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.90% of users gave Global Payments an outperform vote while only 59.81% of users gave WEX an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Global Payments	Outperform Votes 1101 70.90%	Underperform Votes 452 29.10%
WEX	Outperform Votes 503 59.81%	Underperform Votes 338 40.19%

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, GPN or WEX?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Global Payments	$10.11B	2.06	$1.57B	$6.18	13.72
WEX	$2.63B	1.87	$309.60M	$7.50	16.92

Which has more risk & volatility, GPN or WEX?

Global Payments has a beta of 0.97, indicating that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WEX has a beta of 1.61, indicating that its share price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is GPN or WEX more profitable?

Global Payments has a net margin of 15.54% compared to WEX's net margin of 11.78%. WEX's return on equity of 32.35% beat Global Payments' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Global Payments	15.54%	12.21%	5.64%
WEX	11.78%	32.35%	3.89%

Do institutionals & insiders believe in GPN or WEX?

89.8% of Global Payments shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.5% of WEX shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Global Payments shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of WEX shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer GPN or WEX?

In the previous week, Global Payments had 15 more articles in the media than WEX. MarketBeat recorded 33 mentions for Global Payments and 18 mentions for WEX. WEX's average media sentiment score of 1.26 beat Global Payments' score of 1.25 indicating that WEX is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Global Payments	27 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
WEX	12 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Global Payments beats WEX on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.