Head-To-Head Comparison: Aware (NASDAQ:AWRE) vs. GitLab (NASDAQ:GTLB)

GitLab (NASDAQ:GTLB) and Aware (NASDAQ:AWRE) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for GitLab and Aware, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
GitLab	0	4	18	0	2.82
Aware	0	0	0	0	N/A

GitLab currently has a consensus price target of $70.80, indicating a potential upside of 20.82%. Given GitLab’s higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe GitLab is more favorable than Aware.

Profitability

This table compares GitLab and Aware’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
GitLab	-73.14%	-18.26%	-10.65%
Aware	-40.09%	-14.28%	-10.87%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

91.7% of GitLab shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 24.4% of Aware shares are owned by institutional investors. 28.0% of GitLab shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 32.6% of Aware shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares GitLab and Aware’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
GitLab	$579.91 million	16.03	-$424.17 million	($2.75)	-21.31
Aware	$18.24 million	2.10	-$7.31 million	($0.35)	-5.20

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

Risk and Volatility

GitLab has a beta of 0.46, suggesting that its stock price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aware has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Aware beats GitLab on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About GitLab

GitLab Inc., through its subsidiaries, develops software for the software development lifecycle in the United States, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. It offers GitLab, a DevOps platform, which is a single application that leads to faster cycle time and allows visibility throughout and control over various stages of the DevOps lifecycle. The company helps organizations to plan, build, secure, and deploy software to drive business outcomes. It also provides related training and professional services. The company was formerly known as GitLab B.V. and changed its name to GitLab Inc. in July 2015. GitLab Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About Aware

Aware, Inc., a authentication company, provides biometrics software products and solutions for government agencies and commercial entities in the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company offers biometric software solution, which includes Knomi, a mobile biometric framework which provides multiple biometric modality options; AwareABIS, an automated biometric identification system used for large-scale biometric identification and deduplication; AFIX suite used for small-scale law enforcement focused biometric identification; and AFIX Tracker for fingerprint, palmprint, and latent print identification. It also provides BioSP, a service-oriented platform enables biometric system with advanced biometric data processing and management in a web services architecture; WebEnroll, a browser-based biometric enrollment and data management solution; and AwareID, an adaptive authentication platform provides biometric face and voice analysis, and document validation for cloud-based biometric application programming interfaces and turnkey services. In addition, the company offers biometrics applications, such as Nexa line, a biometric search and match SDKs including Nexa Fingerprint, Nexa Face, Nexa Iris, and Nexa Voice; and AwareXM, an interoperable fingerprint matching SDK that provides fingerprint minutiae extraction, template generation, and fingerprint authentication. Further, it sells imaging products used in medical and advanced imaging application; offers program management and software engineering services, and software maintenance services. The company sells its products, services, and solutions through systems integrators, direct, and original equipment manufacturers and value added resellers channel Aware, Inc. was incorporated in 1986 and is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.