Critical Survey: CLEAR Secure (NYSE:YOU) & Telos (NASDAQ:TLS)

Telos (NASDAQ:TLS) and CLEAR Secure (NYSE:YOU) are both technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Telos and CLEAR Secure, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Telos	1	3	2	1	2.43
CLEAR Secure	1	4	4	0	2.33

Telos currently has a consensus price target of $6.50, suggesting a potential upside of 60.89%. CLEAR Secure has a consensus price target of $58.29, suggesting a potential upside of 47.25%. Given Telos’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Telos is more favorable than CLEAR Secure.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Telos and CLEAR Secure”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Telos	$164.80 million	1.83	-$36.55 million	($0.21)	-19.24
CLEAR Secure	$900.78 million	5.94	$109.17 million	$1.47	26.93

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

62.1% of Telos shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.8% of CLEAR Secure shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.9% of Telos shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 29.7% of CLEAR Secure shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Telos	-8.13%	-2.60%	-1.80%
CLEAR Secure	14.78%	71.51%	10.90%

Risk and Volatility

Telos has a beta of 0.98, meaning that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CLEAR Secure has a beta of 1.04, meaning that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

CLEAR Secure 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 CLEAR Secure

Clear Secure, Inc. operates a secure identity platform under the CLEAR brand name primarily in the United States. Its secure identity platform is a multi-layered infrastructure consisting of front-end, including enrollment, verification, and linking, as well as back-end. The company also offers CLEAR Plus, a consumer aviation subscription service, which enables access to predictable entry lanes in airport security checkpoints, as well as access to broader network; and CLEAR mobile app, which is used to enroll new members and improve the experience for existing members. In addition, it provides RESERVE powered by CLEAR, a virtual queuing technology that provides users with the ability to book a dedicated time slot to go through security at the airport; CLEAR Verified, a B2B offering that extends secure identity platform to partners to create friction-free experiences for their customers; TSA PreCheck Enrollment Provided by CLEAR, as well as online renewal services; Atlas Certified, an automated solution to verify professional licenses and certification data across industries; and Sora ID that enables adding know your customer services to platform offerings, as well as virtual queuing technology that enables customers to manage lines. The company was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in New York, New York. Clear Secure, Inc. is a subsidiary of Alclear Investments, Llc.