WU vs. MMS, EXLS, WEX, FLT, WNS, DLO, TNET, FLYW, ENV, and FOUR
Should you be buying Western Union stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Western Union include Maximus (MMS), ExlService (EXLS), WEX (WEX), FLEETCOR Technologies (FLT), WNS (WNS), DLocal (DLO), TriNet Group (TNET), Flywire (FLYW), Envestnet (ENV), and Shift4 Payments (FOUR). These companies are all part of the "business services, not elsewhere classified" industry.
Western Union vs.
Maximus (NYSE:MMS) and Western Union (NYSE:WU) are both mid-cap business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, media sentiment, risk, valuation, profitability, community ranking, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.
Maximus has a beta of 0.69, suggesting that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Western Union has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Maximus currently has a consensus target price of $100.00, indicating a potential upside of 28.68%. Western Union has a consensus target price of $14.23, indicating a potential upside of 28.11%. Given Maximus' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Maximus is more favorable than Western Union.
Maximus pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Western Union pays an annual dividend of $0.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.5%. Maximus pays out 36.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Western Union pays out 40.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.
Western Union has a net margin of 20.35% compared to Maximus' net margin of 4.03%. Western Union's return on equity of 151.54% beat Maximus' return on equity.
Western Union received 160 more outperform votes than Maximus when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.36% of users gave Maximus an outperform vote while only 55.01% of users gave Western Union an outperform vote.
97.4% of Maximus shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.7% of Western Union shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Maximus shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Western Union shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
In the previous week, Western Union had 10 more articles in the media than Maximus. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for Western Union and 3 mentions for Maximus. Western Union's average media sentiment score of 1.03 beat Maximus' score of 0.48 indicating that Western Union is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Western Union has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Maximus. Western Union is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Maximus, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Western Union beats Maximus on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding WU and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartMedia Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Skip Chart
Western Union Competitors List