Contrasting Toast (NYSE:TOST) and Solana (NASDAQ:HSDT)

Solana (NASDAQ:HSDT) and Toast (NYSE:TOST) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Solana and Toast, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Solana	1	1	2	0	2.25
Toast	0	11	16	0	2.59

Solana presently has a consensus target price of $4.00, suggesting a potential upside of 70.21%. Toast has a consensus target price of $39.12, suggesting a potential upside of 26.94%. Given Solana’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Solana is more favorable than Toast.

Risk & Volatility

Solana has a beta of 1.11, meaning that its share price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Toast has a beta of 1.74, meaning that its share price is 74% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Solana and Toast’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Solana	-1,302.78%	-41.86%	-18.53%
Toast	7.14%	23.90%	15.77%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Solana and Toast”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Solana	$6.02 million	23.71	-$40.89 million	($30.32)	-0.08
Toast	$6.15 billion	2.57	$342.00 million	$0.78	39.50

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

18.6% of Solana shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.9% of Toast shares are held by institutional investors. 14.4% of Solana shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.0% of Toast shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Toast beats Solana on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Solana

Helius Medical Technologies, Inc., a neurotechnology company, focuses on developing, licensing, and acquiring non-implantable technologies for the treatment of symptoms caused by neurological disease or trauma. The company's product is Portable Neuromodulation Stimulator, a non-surgical medical device intended for use as a short term treatment of gait deficit due to symptoms from multiple sclerosis and balance deficit due to mild-to-moderate traumatic brain injury, as well as to be used in conjunction with supervised therapeutic exercise. The company was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania.

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.