Tucows (NASDAQ:TCX) versus Toast (NYSE:TOST) Head to Head Review

Tucows (NASDAQ:TCX) and Toast (NYSE:TOST) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability, risk, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

73.6% of Tucows shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.9% of Toast shares are held by institutional investors. 11.6% of Tucows shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.3% of Toast shares are held by company 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 Tucows and Toast’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Tucows	-26.01%	-490.14%	-11.58%
Toast	-3.10%	-11.27%	-6.80%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Tucows and Toast, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Tucows	0	0	0	0	N/A
Toast	1	8	9	1	2.53

Toast has a consensus price target of $28.33, suggesting a potential upside of 1.19%. Given Toast’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Toast is more favorable than Tucows.

Risk and Volatility

Tucows has a beta of 0.85, indicating that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Toast has a beta of 1.75, indicating that its share price is 75% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Tucows and Toast”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Tucows	$350.81 million	0.66	-$96.20 million	($9.51)	-2.21
Toast	$4.39 billion	2.89	-$246.00 million	($0.50)	-56.00

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

Summary

Toast beats Tucows on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Tucows

Tucows Inc. provides network access, domain name registration, email, mobile telephony, and other Internet services in North America and Europe. It operates in three segments: Ting, Wavelo and Tucows Domains. The Ting segment provides fiber and fixed wireless internet services. The Wavelo segment offers individual developer tools, subscription, billing management, network orchestration, and provisioning services. This segment also provides billing solutions under Platypus brand. The Tucows Domains segment offers name registration, as well as value added services under OpenSRS, eNom, Ascio, EPAG, and Hover brands. The company was formerly known as Infonautics, Inc. and changed its name to Tucows Inc. in August 2001. Tucows Inc. was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

About Toast

Toast, Inc. operates a cloud-based digital technology platform for the restaurant industry in the United States, Ireland, and India. The company offers software products for restaurant operations and point of sale, such as Toast POS, Toast now, multi-location management, kitchen display system, Toast mobile order and pay, Toast catering and events, Toast invoicing, Toast tables, and restaurant retail; and hardware products, including Toast flex, Toast flex for guest, Toast go 2, Toast tap, kiosks, and Delphi by Toast. It provides toast online ordering and toast takeout, first-party delivery toast delivery services, and third-party delivery integrations and orders hub; and loyalty, email marketing, and toast gift cards. In addition, the company offers payroll and team management, Sling by Toast, Toast pay card and payout, and tips manager, as well as partner-enabled products comprising insurance and benefits; supply chain and accounting products, such as xtraCHEF by toast; and financial technology solutions consisting of payment processing, toast capital, and purchase plans. Further, it offers reporting and analytics, Toast shop, and Toast partner connect and application programming interfaces. The company was formerly known as Opti Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Toast, Inc. in May 2012. Toast, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.