Contrasting WEX (NYSE:WEX) and QuoteMedia (OTCMKTS:QMCI)

WEX (NYSE:WEX) and QuoteMedia (OTCMKTS:QMCI) are both business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership and profitability.

Risk and Volatility

WEX has a beta of 1.26, indicating that its stock price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, QuoteMedia has a beta of 0.32, indicating that its stock price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares WEX and QuoteMedia’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
WEX	11.78%	32.35%	3.89%
QuoteMedia	-3.58%	N/A	-9.15%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

97.5% of WEX shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of WEX shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 47.1% of QuoteMedia shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for WEX and QuoteMedia, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
WEX	0	10	3	0	2.23
QuoteMedia	0	0	0	0	0.00

WEX currently has a consensus price target of $182.40, indicating a potential upside of 36.93%. Given WEX’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe WEX is more favorable than QuoteMedia.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares WEX and QuoteMedia”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
WEX	$2.61 billion	1.75	$309.60 million	$7.76	17.17
QuoteMedia	$18.91 million	0.78	$370,000.00	($0.02)	-8.15

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

Summary

WEX beats QuoteMedia on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About QuoteMedia

QuoteMedia, Inc. provides financial data, market research information, analytics, news feeds, and financial software solutions to online brokerages, banks, clearing firms, financial service companies, media portals, and public corporations worldwide. It collects, aggregates, and delivers delayed and real-time financial data content through the Internet. The company also offers market information and services, including streaming stock market data feeds, research and analysis information, content applications, portfolio management systems, software products, corporate investor relations provisioning, news services, mobile apps, and custom development. In addition, its data feeds coverage includes equities, options, futures, commodities, currencies, mutual funds, ETFs, and indices. Further, the company provides financial data delivery application products and components comprising quote modules, charts, market movers, news, watch lists, tickers, market summaries, option chains, filings, fundamentals, investor relations solutions, stock and fund screeners, and others; and QMod, a web delivery system for delivering market data content to Web platforms. Additionally, it offers portfolio managements systems, including Quotestream Desktop, We, and Mobile, a Web-delivered, embedded application providing real-time, tick-by-tick, streaming market quotes and research information; Quotestream Professional that offers low-latency tick-by-tick data, customizable screens, advanced charting, comprehensive technical analysis, news, and research data for financial services professionals; Web Portfolio Manager, which provides immediate web access to detailed quote data, market and company news, charting, depth/level II, filings, historical data, snap quotes, and others; and Quotestream Connect that delivers real time data feeds to individual users to power third party applications. The company was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Fountain Hills, Arizona.