Financial Analysis: Telos (NASDAQ:TLS) versus Blend Labs (NYSE:BLND)

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

Earnings & Valuation

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

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

Blend Labs has higher earnings, but lower revenue 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 recent ratings and target prices for Blend Labs and Telos, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

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

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

Risk and Volatility

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

52.6% of Blend Labs shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 62.1% of Telos shares are owned by institutional investors. 40.3% of Blend Labs shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.9% of Telos shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

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

Summary

Blend Labs beats Telos on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

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.