Critical Comparison: CardConnect Corp (CCN) versus WEX (WEX)

CardConnect Corp (NASDAQ: CCN) and WEX (NYSE:WEX) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership and earnings.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares CardConnect Corp and WEX’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CardConnect Corp	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
WEX	$1.17 billion	3.81	$379.74 million	$1.66	62.51

WEX has higher revenue and earnings than CardConnect Corp.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

31.6% of CardConnect Corp shares are held by institutional investors. 48.3% of CardConnect Corp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of WEX shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for CardConnect Corp and WEX, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CardConnect Corp	0	2	4	0	2.67
WEX	0	2	7	0	2.78

CardConnect Corp presently has a consensus target price of $16.00, indicating a potential upside of 6.31%. WEX has a consensus target price of $122.00, indicating a potential upside of 17.58%. Given WEX’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe WEX is more favorable than CardConnect Corp.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CardConnect Corp	-1.00%	N/A	-3.75%
WEX	6.09%	13.03%	3.23%

Summary

WEX beats CardConnect Corp on 7 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CardConnect Corp

CardConnect Corp., formerly FinTech Acquisition Corp., is a holding company. The Company holds interests in CardConnect, LLC. The Company is a provider of payment processing solutions to merchants throughout the United States. The Company’s segments include Merchant Acquiring Services and Other. The Company’s platform allows it to provide payment solutions, customer support and tools for its distribution partners and merchants. Its solutions and services enable distribution partners to manage their business and for merchants to securely accept electronic payments. Its Merchant Acquiring services business involves providing end-to-end electronic payment processing services to merchants by facilitating the exchange of information and funds between them and cardholders’ financial institutions. It undertakes or facilitates through third parties, merchant set-up and training, transaction authorization, settlement, merchant funding, merchant assistance and support, and risk management.

About WEX

WEX Inc. is a provider of corporate payment solutions. The Company operates through three segments: Fleet Solutions, Travel and Corporate Solutions, and Health and Employee Benefit Solutions. The Fleet Solutions segment provides customers with payment and transaction processing services designed for the needs of commercial and government fleets. The Travel and Corporate Solutions segment focuses on the complex payment environment of business-to-business payments, providing customers with payment processing solutions for their corporate payment and transaction monitoring needs. The Health and Employee Benefit Solutions segment provides healthcare payment products and software as a service consumer directed platforms, as well as payroll related benefits to customers in Brazil. The United States operations include the Company and its subsidiaries WEX Bank, WEX FleetOne, Electronic Funds Source LLC and WEX Health.