Aflac (AFL) Competitors

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) and MetLife (NYSE:MET) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, profitability, risk and dividends.

Do analysts recommend AFL or MET?

Aflac currently has a consensus price target of $102.86, suggesting a potential upside of 0.80%. MetLife has a consensus price target of $92.58, suggesting a potential upside of 14.28%. Given MetLife's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe MetLife is more favorable than Aflac.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Aflac	2 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
MetLife	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.92

Which has better valuation & earnings, AFL or MET?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Aflac	$18.93B	3.00	$5.44B	$9.60	10.63
MetLife	$70.99B	0.79	$4.43B	$5.97	13.57

Do institutionals and insiders believe in AFL or MET?

67.4% of Aflac shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.0% of MetLife shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Aflac shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of MetLife shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is AFL or MET a better dividend stock?

Aflac pays an annual dividend of $2.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. MetLife pays an annual dividend of $2.18 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Aflac pays out 24.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MetLife pays out 36.5% 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 44 consecutive years and MetLife has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years.

Is AFL or MET more profitable?

Aflac has a net margin of 28.76% compared to MetLife's net margin of 6.19%. MetLife's return on equity of 20.42% beat Aflac's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aflac	28.76%	16.20%	3.32%
MetLife	6.19%	20.42%	0.86%

Which has more risk & volatility, AFL or MET?

Aflac has a beta of 0.99, meaning that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MetLife has a beta of 1.07, meaning that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in AFL or MET?

MetLife received 377 more outperform votes than Aflac when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 73.80% of users gave MetLife an outperform vote while only 56.01% of users gave Aflac an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Aflac	Outperform Votes 578 56.01%	Underperform Votes 454 43.99%
MetLife	Outperform Votes 955 73.80%	Underperform Votes 339 26.20%

Does the media refer more to AFL or MET?

In the previous week, MetLife had 5 more articles in the media than Aflac. MarketBeat recorded 29 mentions for MetLife and 24 mentions for Aflac. Aflac's average media sentiment score of 1.18 beat MetLife's score of 1.06 indicating that Aflac is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Aflac	19 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
MetLife	21 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

MetLife beats Aflac on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.