WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX) yesterday announced its partnership with AI.io, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) solutions providers.
The companies have teamed up to launch — Halo Travel, a voice-activated travel chat bot. Powered by Booking Holdings’ (NASDAQ:BKNG) Priceline Partner Network and created by AI.io, Halo Travel is deemed to be the first application to enable hotel and flight bookings exclusively through voice.
We observe that shares of WEX have gained 7.7% in the past year, outperforming the 7.1% rise of the industry it belongs to.
Halo Travel is expected to provide personalized travel assistance, by understanding customers’ travel habits and patterns, through its inbuilt AI. The travel app can be operated through any device having Internet connection. With the help of Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google Assistant, customers can process their entire travel transaction by just saying, “Hey Google, Talk to Halo Travel.”
WEX will be facilitating payment from Halo Travel to Priceline Partner Network through its virtual payments technology, thereby ensuring a seamless payment process.
Jim Pratt, senior vice president, Travel, WEX Corporate Payments, stated, “WEX is proud to help bring this travel innovation to market, adding convenience to booking travel by providing our best-in-class virtual payments technology.”
Our Take
The partnership is likely to help WEX strengthen its Travel and Corporate Solutions segment, which is highly dependent on the online travel market. Performance of the segment was strong in the last reported quarter with revenues improving 35.7% year over year. The segment contributed around 22% to WEX’s third-quarter 2018 revenues.
Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
WEX carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
A better-ranked stock in the broader Zacks Business Services sector is Republic Services (NYSE:RSG) , carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Long-term expected EPS (three to five years) growth rate for the company is 10.7%.
More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone!
It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market.
Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 6 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2020.
Click here for the 6 trades >>
Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL): Free Stock Analysis Report
WEX Inc. (WEX): Free Stock Analysis Report
Republic Services, Inc. (RSG): Free Stock Analysis Report
Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG): Free Stock Analysis Report
Original post
Zacks Investment Research