Telos (NASDAQ:TLS) versus CDW (NASDAQ:CDW) Head to Head Review

Telos (NASDAQ:TLS) and CDW (NASDAQ:CDW) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation and institutional ownership.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Telos and CDW”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Telos	$164.80 million	1.98	-$36.55 million	($0.35)	-12.49
CDW	$22.42 billion	0.72	$1.07 billion	$8.22	15.41

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

Risk & Volatility

Telos has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CDW has a beta of 1, suggesting that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Telos and CDW’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Telos	-14.25%	-11.95%	-8.45%
CDW	4.70%	49.67%	8.02%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

62.1% of Telos shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.2% of CDW shares are held by institutional investors. 14.9% of Telos shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of CDW shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Telos and CDW, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Telos	1	2	3	0	2.33
CDW	0	4	4	1	2.67

Telos currently has a consensus price target of $7.10, suggesting a potential upside of 62.47%. CDW has a consensus price target of $140.63, suggesting a potential upside of 10.99%. Given Telos’ higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Telos is more favorable than CDW.

Summary

CDW beats Telos on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Telos

Telos Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides cyber, cloud, and enterprise security solutions worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Security Solutions and Secure Networks. It provides Xacta, a platform for enterprise cyber risk management and security compliance automation; and consulting, assessment and compliance, engineering and evaluation, operations, and penetration testing services. The company also offers Telos Automated Message Handling System, a web-based organizational message distribution and management for mission-critical communications used by military field operatives; and Telos Advanced Cyber Analytics solution, which is a threat feed source of global Internet Protocol addresses known to engage in potentially malicious activity, including mass scanning and generic opportunistic attacks; and Telos Ghost, a solution to eliminate cyberattack surfaces by obfuscating and encrypting data, masking user identity and location, and hiding network resources, as well as provides security and privacy for intelligence gathering, cyber threat protection, securing critical infrastructure, and protecting communications and applications. In addition, the company provides IDTrust360, an enterprise digital trusted identity risk platform for extending flexible hybrid cloud identity services; and ONYX, a touchless fingerprint biometric solution for mobile devices. Further, it offers secure mobility solutions that enable remote work and minimize operational and security concerns across and beyond the enterprise; and network management and defense services for operating, administrating, and defending complex enterprise networks and services for defensive cyber operations. It serves the United States federal government, large commercial businesses, state and local governments, and international customers. Telos Corporation was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia.

About CDW

CDW Corporation provides information technology (IT) solutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. It operates through three segments: Corporate, Small Business, and Public. The company offers discrete hardware and software products and services, as well as integrated IT solutions, including on-premise and cloud capabilities across hybrid infrastructure, digital experience, and security. It also provides hardware products comprising notebooks/mobile devices, tablets, network communications, desktop computers, collaboration, data storage and servers, and others; and software products, such as cloud solutions, software assurance, application suites, security, virtualization, operating systems, and network management. In addition, the company offers advisory and design, software development, implementation, managed, professional, configuration, partner, and telecom services, as well as warranties; delivers and manages mission critical software, systems, and network solutions; and implementation and installation, and repair services to its customers through various third-party service providers. It serves government, education, and healthcare customers; and small, medium, and large business customers. CDW Corporation was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Vernon Hills, Illinois.