Financial Comparison: Western Union (NYSE:WU) & Envestnet (NYSE:ENV)

Envestnet (NYSE:ENV) and Western Union (NYSE:WU) are both mid-cap business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Volatility & Risk

Envestnet has a beta of 1.28, indicating that its share price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Western Union has a beta of 0.85, indicating that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

91.8% of Western Union shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.9% of Envestnet shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Western Union shares are owned 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.

Profitability

This table compares Envestnet and Western Union’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Envestnet	-15.33%	14.75%	5.01%
Western Union	13.64%	123.71%	7.43%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Envestnet and Western Union’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Envestnet	$1.31 billion	2.65	-$238.72 million	($3.56)	-17.70
Western Union	$4.36 billion	0.91	$626.00 million	$1.69	6.98

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Envestnet and Western Union, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Envestnet	0	7	1	0	2.13
Western Union	3	7	0	0	1.70

Envestnet currently has a consensus price target of $61.88, indicating a potential downside of 1.78%. Western Union has a consensus price target of $13.14, indicating a potential upside of 11.38%. Given Western Union’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Western Union is more favorable than Envestnet.

Summary

Western Union beats Envestnet on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Envestnet

Envestnet, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides wealth management software and services in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments: Envestnet Wealth Solutions and Envestnet Data & Analytics. The Envestnet Wealth Solutions segment offers Envestnet | Enterprise, an end-to-end open architecture wealth management platform, as well as offers data aggregation and reporting, data analytics, and digital advice capabilities; Envestnet | Wealth Analytics that transforms data into actionable intelligence; Envestnet | Tamarac which provides trading, rebalancing, portfolio accounting, performance reporting, and client relationship management software; and Envestnet | MoneyGuide that provides goals-based financial planning solutions to the financial services industry. This segment also provides Envestnet | Workplace Solutions which offers a suite of services for advisor-sold retirement plans; Envestnet | PMC that offer research and consulting services to assist advisors in creating investment solutions, and portfolio overlay and tax optimization services; and Envestnet | Billing Solutions which provides revenue management and hosted fee-billing solutions. The Envestnet Data & Analytics segment provides Envestnet Data & Analytics, a data aggregation, analytics, and digital experiences platform that provides clients and their account holders with data connectivity via open APIs, data enrichment, AI-based analytics, and digital experiences. It serves retail banks, credit unions, credit card providers, wealth management financial advisors and institutions, financial technology innovators, financial advisory firms, research and analyst firms, personal financial management, small business accounting, e-commerce, payment solutions providers, small business lending, and authentication customers. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Berwyn, Pennsylvania.

About Western Union

The Western Union Company provides money movement and payment services worldwide. The company operates through Consumer Money Transfer and Consumer Services segments. The Consumer Money Transfer segment facilitates money transfers for international cross-border and intra-country transfers, primarily through a network of retail agent locations, as well as through websites and mobile devices. The Consumer Services segments offers bill payment services, which facilitate payments for consumers, businesses, and other organizations, as well as money order services, retail foreign exchange services, prepaid cards, lending partnerships, and digital wallets. The company was founded in 1851 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.