Head to Head Analysis: EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM) versus Telos (NASDAQ:TLS)

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

Analyst Ratings

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
EPAM Systems	0	7	11	0	2.61
Telos	1	2	2	0	2.20

EPAM Systems presently has a consensus target price of $193.56, indicating a potential upside of 58.08%. Telos has a consensus target price of $7.38, indicating a potential upside of 86.24%. Given Telos’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Telos is more favorable than EPAM Systems.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares EPAM Systems and Telos”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
EPAM Systems	$5.46 billion	1.18	$377.68 million	$6.73	18.19
Telos	$164.80 million	1.86	-$36.55 million	($0.50)	-7.92

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

91.6% of EPAM Systems shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 62.1% of Telos shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.3% of EPAM Systems shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.9% of Telos shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares EPAM Systems and Telos’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
EPAM Systems	6.92%	13.57%	10.41%
Telos	-22.17%	-20.30%	-14.89%

Risk & Volatility

EPAM Systems has a beta of 1.73, indicating that its share price is 73% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Telos has a beta of 0.94, indicating that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

EPAM Systems beats Telos on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About EPAM Systems

EPAM Systems, Inc. provides digital platform engineering and software development services worldwide. The company offers engineering services, including requirements analysis and platform selection, customization, cross-platform migration, implementation, and integration; infrastructure management services, such as software development, testing, performance tuning, deployment, maintenance, and support services. It also provides operation solutions comprising integrated engineering practices and smart automation services. In addition, the company offers business, experience, technology, data, and technical advisory consulting services; and digital and service design solutions, which comprise strategy, design, creative, and program management services, as well as physical product development, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and virtual reality. The company serves the financial services, travel and consumer, software and hi-tech, business information and media, life sciences and healthcare, and other industries EPAM Systems, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania.

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.