American Express (NYSE:AXP) vs. Winland Electronics (OTCMKTS:WELX) Financial Contrast

American Express (NYSE:AXP) and Winland Electronics (OTCMKTS:WELX) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for American Express and Winland Electronics, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Express	1	12	10	1	2.46
Winland Electronics	0	0	0	0	0.00

American Express currently has a consensus price target of $361.55, suggesting a potential upside of 5.99%. Given American Express’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe American Express is more favorable than Winland Electronics.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

84.3% of American Express shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of American Express shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.1% of Winland Electronics shares are held by company 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.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares American Express and Winland Electronics”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Express	$72.23 billion	3.22	$10.83 billion	$16.03	21.28
Winland Electronics	$5.81 million	2.04	-$520,000.00	$0.50	4.66

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

Profitability

This table compares American Express and Winland Electronics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Express	15.13%	33.95%	3.73%
Winland Electronics	N/A	N/A	N/A

Risk and Volatility

American Express has a beta of 1.06, indicating that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Winland Electronics has a beta of 1.28, indicating that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

American Express beats Winland Electronics on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About American Express

American Express Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as integrated payments company in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Asia Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, Canada, the Caribbean, and Internationally. It operates through four segments: U.S. Consumer Services, Commercial Services, International Card Services, and Global Merchant and Network Services. The company’s products and services include credit card, charge card, banking, and other payment and financing products; network services; expense management products and services; and travel and lifestyle services. It also provides merchant acquisition and processing, servicing and settlement, point-of-sale marketing, and information products and services for merchants; and fraud prevention services, as well as the design and operation of customer loyalty programs. In addition, the company operates lounges at airports under Centurion Lounge brand name. It sells its products and services to consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations through mobile and online applications, affiliate marketing, customer referral programs, third-party service providers and business partners, direct mail, telephone, in-house sales teams, and direct response advertising. American Express Company was founded in 1850 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Winland Electronics

Winland Holdings Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides critical condition monitoring devices to the security industry. Its products are used to protect against loss of assets due to damage from water, excess humidity, extremes of temperature, and loss of power. The company offers EnviroAlert, which monitors temperature, humidity, and/or water presence in critical environments; TempAlert, a temperature monitoring device for residential and commercial environments through security systems; WaterBug, a water presence and leak detection system; and Power-Out Alert, a power outage detector. It also provides INSIGHT, an automated cloud-based platform that offers early alerting, reporting, and logging services designed to ensure regulatory compliance. The company offers its products through a network of distributors, dealers, security installers, and integrators for industries including health and medical, grocery and food services, and commercial and industrial, as well as agriculture and residential. Winland Holdings Corporation was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Mankato, Minnesota.