The Western Union Company provides money movement payments, and digital financial services in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Consumer Money Transfer and Consumer Services. The Consumer Money Transfer segment facilitates money transfers for international cross-border and intra-country transfers, primarily through a network of retail agents and owned locations, as well as through websites and mobile …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Premium Software MarginsGross margin quality is strong versus peers (score 0.80), consistent with premium software economics.
Asset-Light ReturnsReturn profile is strong (score 0.86), supporting a capital-efficient model.
Key risks
Contracted Demand Looks ThinContracted demand signal is weak (score 0.14), limiting evidence of strong subscription stickiness.
FCF Trend Is SofteningFCF trend is weak (score 0.31), suggesting cash scalability is deteriorating.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Western Union Company (The) ranks #32 of 78
scored companies in Information Technology Services by moat score — the top 41%.
The widest moat in the group is Mastercard Incorporated (MA)
at 84/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near WU in Information Technology Services
How WU scores on the Software & SaaS Specialized defenses
Pricing Power
Score 77
· 20% of the moat score
In software, pricing power is visible in gross margin: a vendor that has to discount in order to renew gives it up first.
Recurring Revenue Stickiness
Score 42
· 18% of the moat score
Recurring revenue is the model's central claim, and it is a moat only when customers renew and expand without being re-sold each year.
Innovation Engine
Score 47
· 16% of the moat score
Software is competed away rather than depreciated, so a vendor that stops investing loses its category.
Cash Scalability
Score 51
· 18% of the moat score
The test of a software business is whether growth eventually stops consuming cash.
Capital Efficiency
Score 72
· 16% of the moat score
A software platform employs very little capital, so a genuine franchise should produce high returns on it without leverage.
Balance Sheet Resilience
Score 43
· 12% of the moat score
Software companies fund years of customer acquisition before those customers pay back, which makes access to capital a strategic variable rather than a treasury detail.
Western Union Company (The) (WU) scores 56 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #32 of 78 scored companies in Information Technology Services, the top 41%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 77 companies in Information Technology Services. Its strongest defense is Pricing Power (77/100) and its weakest is Recurring Revenue Stickiness (42/100).
How does Western Union Company (The) compare with other Information Technology Services companies?
Western Union Company (The) ranks #32 of 78 scored companies in Information Technology Services by moat score. The widest moat in Information Technology Services is Mastercard Incorporated (MA) at 84/100. The companies ranked closest are Fidelity National Information S (FIS) at 57 just above it and Science Applications Internatio (SAIC) at 55 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Software & SaaS Specialized in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 77 companies in Information Technology Services. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Western Union Company (The) scored with the Software & SaaS Specialized template?
Software costs almost nothing to reproduce, so the entire economic question is whether customers keep paying. Revenue is a subscription rather than a sale, the cost of winning a customer is paid years before that customer becomes profitable, and margins arrive only if renewals hold. The Software & SaaS template scores retention, reinvestment, and the point at which growth turns into cash.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Western Union Company (The)?
The Software & SaaS Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and WU scores: Pricing Power (77), Recurring Revenue Stickiness (42), Innovation Engine (47), Cash Scalability (51), Capital Efficiency (72), Balance Sheet Resilience (43). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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