Comparing Blend Labs (NYSE:BLND) and Telos (NASDAQ:TLS)

Telos (NASDAQ:TLS) and Blend Labs (NYSE:BLND) are both small-cap technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, profitability, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Telos and Blend Labs”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Telos	$164.80 million	2.21	-$36.55 million	($0.21)	-23.19
Blend Labs	$123.51 million	2.88	-$6.80 million	($0.09)	-16.72

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Telos and Blend Labs, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Telos	1	2	3	1	2.57
Blend Labs	1	3	4	0	2.38

Telos currently has a consensus price target of $7.10, suggesting a potential upside of 45.79%. Blend Labs has a consensus price target of $2.82, suggesting a potential upside of 87.15%. Given Blend Labs’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Blend Labs is more favorable than Telos.

Risk & Volatility

Telos has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Blend Labs has a beta of 1.09, suggesting that its stock price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Telos and Blend Labs’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Telos	-8.13%	-2.60%	-1.80%
Blend Labs	0.32%	N/A	-3.15%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

62.1% of Telos shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.6% of Blend Labs shares are held by institutional investors. 14.9% of Telos shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 40.3% of Blend Labs shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Blend Labs beats Telos on 9 of the 14 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 Blend Labs

Blend Labs, Inc. engages in the provision of cloud-based software platform solutions for financial services firms in the United States. It operates in two segments, Blend Platform and Title365. The company's Blend Builder Platform offers a suite of products that powers digital-first consumer journeys for mortgages, home equity loans and lines of credit, vehicle loans, personal loans, credit cards, and deposit accounts; and offers mortgage products to facilitate the homeownership journey for consumers comprising close, income verification for mortgage, homeowners' insurance, and realty. It also offers verification components to automate confirmation tasks that are needed to underwrite a loan or approve the opening of a new deposit account; decisioning components to reduce the need for human intervention by automatically applying business rules throughout an application workflow configured by a financial services firm; workflow intelligence components to manage data collection and automate tasks throughout the loan origination process; and marketplace components to enable consumers to shop for products and services presented at the precise moment of need during an application for a loan. In addition, the company, through its subsidiary, offers title search procedures for title insurance policies, escrow, and other closing and settlement services, as well as other trustee services; and provides professional and consulting services. It serves banks, credit unions, fintechs, and non-bank mortgage lenders. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.