Contrasting CLEAR Secure (NYSE:YOU) and Rapid7 (NASDAQ:RPD)

CLEAR Secure (NYSE:YOU) and Rapid7 (NASDAQ:RPD) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability and earnings.

Volatility & Risk

CLEAR Secure has a beta of 1.09, indicating that its stock price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Rapid7 has a beta of 0.89, indicating that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares CLEAR Secure and Rapid7″s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CLEAR Secure	$900.78 million	8.71	$109.17 million	$1.24	47.45
Rapid7	$859.23 million	0.51	$23.38 million	$0.35	18.57

CLEAR Secure has higher revenue and earnings than Rapid7. Rapid7 is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CLEAR Secure, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares CLEAR Secure and Rapid7’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CLEAR Secure	13.01%	68.98%	9.74%
Rapid7	2.61%	34.35%	2.78%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

73.8% of CLEAR Secure shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.7% of Rapid7 shares are held by institutional investors. 39.7% of CLEAR Secure shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of Rapid7 shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for CLEAR Secure and Rapid7, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CLEAR Secure	1	2	5	1	2.67
Rapid7	3	17	2	0	1.95

CLEAR Secure presently has a consensus target price of $60.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1.97%. Rapid7 has a consensus target price of $8.71, suggesting a potential upside of 34.01%. Given Rapid7’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Rapid7 is more favorable than CLEAR Secure.

Summary

CLEAR Secure beats Rapid7 on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Rapid7

Rapid7, Inc. provides cybersecurity solutions under the Rapid7, Nexpose, and Metasploit brand names. The company offers endpoint to cloud data collection and sharing applications, such as Rapid7 Insight Agent, a software-based agent that is used on assets across on-premises and cloud environments to centralize and monitor data on company's platform; Rapid7 Insight Network Sensor that analyzes raw end-to-end network traffic to increase visibility into user activity, pinpoint real threats, and investigations; Rapid7 Cloud Event Data Harvesting that offers visibility into changes made to cloud resources; and third-party integrations and ecosystem, as well as orchestration and automation solutions. It also offers various platforms, including Rapid7 managed threat complete consisting of managed detection response that delivers end-to-end threat detection and response, as well as offloads day-to-day vulnerability management operations. In addition, it provides Rapid7 threat complete consisting of InsightIDR, a security information and event management, and extended detection and response solution; and InsightVM, a vulnerability management solution that provides visibility across on-premise and remote endpoints for security teams to evaluate the business risks, and configurations, and share with their IT counterparts for remediation. Further, the company offers Rapid7 cloud risk complete, which includes InsightCloudSec, a cloud risk and compliance management solution; and InsightAppSec, a dynamic application security testing tool. It also provides professional services. It serves a range of industries, including business services, pharmaceuticals, technology, energy, financial services, healthcare and life sciences, manufacturing, media and entertainment, retail, education, real estate, travel and transportation, government, online services, telecommunications, and professional services. The company was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.