PFG vs. AFL, UNM, CNO, CME, MCO, EQIX, BN, APO, BMO, and BBVA
Should you be buying Principal Financial Group stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Principal Financial Group include Aflac (AFL), Unum Group (UNM), CNO Financial Group (CNO), CME Group (CME), Moody's (MCO), Equinix (EQIX), Brookfield (BN), Apollo Global Management (APO), Bank of Montreal (BMO), and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.
Aflac (NYSE:AFL) and Principal Financial Group (NYSE:PFG) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, community ranking, profitability, earnings, dividends and risk.
Aflac currently has a consensus target price of $82.38, suggesting a potential downside of 8.33%. Principal Financial Group has a consensus target price of $80.30, suggesting a potential downside of 2.12%. Given Aflac's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Principal Financial Group is more favorable than Aflac.
Aflac has a beta of 0.91, indicating that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Principal Financial Group has a beta of 1.24, indicating that its stock price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Aflac has higher revenue and earnings than Principal Financial Group. Aflac is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Principal Financial Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Aflac received 571 more outperform votes than Principal Financial Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 57.27% of users gave Aflac an outperform vote while only 0.00% of users gave Principal Financial Group an outperform vote.
Aflac has a net margin of 27.67% compared to Aflac's net margin of 8.70%. Principal Financial Group's return on equity of 16.88% beat Aflac's return on equity.
Aflac pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Principal Financial Group pays an annual dividend of $2.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Aflac pays out 22.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Principal Financial Group pays out 52.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Aflac has raised its dividend for 43 consecutive years and Principal Financial Group has raised its dividend for 16 consecutive years.
67.4% of Aflac shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.1% of Principal Financial Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Aflac shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Principal Financial Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
In the previous week, Aflac had 7 more articles in the media than Principal Financial Group. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for Aflac and 6 mentions for Principal Financial Group. Principal Financial Group's average media sentiment score of 0.81 beat Aflac's score of 0.81 indicating that Aflac is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Summary
Aflac beats Principal Financial Group on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding PFG and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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