Contrasting AppTech Payments (NASDAQ:APCX) and Clear Secure (NYSE:YOU)

Clear Secure (NYSE:YOU) and AppTech Payments (NASDAQ:APCX) are both industrial products companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk and earnings.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

73.8% of Clear Secure shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 5.2% of AppTech Payments shares are held by institutional investors. 37.8% of Clear Secure shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 8.5% of AppTech Payments shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Clear Secure and AppTech Payments’ revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Clear Secure	$697.15 million	5.76	$28.11 million	$0.56	49.55
AppTech Payments	$520,000.00	42.80	-$18.51 million	($0.92)	-0.98

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

Risk and Volatility

Clear Secure has a beta of 1.58, meaning that its stock price is 58% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AppTech Payments has a beta of 0.86, meaning that its stock price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Clear Secure and AppTech Payments’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Clear Secure	10.36%	35.33%	11.40%
AppTech Payments	-3,538.08%	-507.73%	-243.40%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Clear Secure and AppTech Payments, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Clear Secure	1	1	3	0	2.40
AppTech Payments	0	0	0	0	N/A

Clear Secure presently has a consensus price target of $29.20, suggesting a potential upside of 5.23%. Given Clear Secure’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Clear Secure is more favorable than AppTech Payments.

Summary

Clear Secure beats AppTech Payments on 12 of the 13 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.

About AppTech Payments

AppTech Payments Corp., a financial technology company, provides electronic payment processing technologies and merchant services in the United States. Its merchant transaction services offer processing payments for credit and debit cards through point-of-sale equipment, e-commerce gateways, periodic automatic clearing house payments, and gift and loyalty programs. The company also offers integrated solutions for frictionless digital and mobile payment acceptance, as well as multi-use case, multi-channel, API-driven, and account-based issuer processing for card, digital tokens, and payment transfer transaction services; hosted ecommerce checkout, a flexible payment gateway; and text payment technology, alternative payment methods (APMs), and contactless payments. In addition, it provides FinZeo, a fintech platform. The company was formerly known as AppTech Corp. AppTech Payments Corp. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Carlsbad, California.