MetLife (MET) Competitors

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

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, 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	$19.13B	3.08	$5.44B	$9.60	11.25
MetLife	$69.90B	0.71	$4.43B	$5.97	12.17

Do analysts recommend AFL or MET?

Aflac presently has a consensus target price of $103.93, indicating a potential downside of 3.79%. MetLife has a consensus target price of $92.46, indicating a potential upside of 27.26%. Given MetLife's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly 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)	13 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.93

Do insiders & institutionals believe in AFL or MET?

67.4% of Aflac shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.0% of MetLife shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Aflac shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of MetLife shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer AFL or MET?

MetLife received 385 more outperform votes than Aflac when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 73.98% of users gave MetLife an outperform vote while only 55.83% of users gave Aflac an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Aflac	Outperform Votes 579 55.83%	Underperform Votes 458 44.17%
MetLife	Outperform Votes 964 73.98%	Underperform Votes 339 26.02%

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%

Is AFL or MET a better dividend stock?

Aflac pays an annual dividend of $2.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. MetLife pays an annual dividend of $2.18 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. 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 increased its dividend for 44 consecutive years and MetLife has increased its dividend for 11 consecutive years.

Does the media prefer AFL or MET?

In the previous week, MetLife had 12 more articles in the media than Aflac. MarketBeat recorded 39 mentions for MetLife and 27 mentions for Aflac. Aflac's average media sentiment score of 1.15 beat MetLife's score of 0.77 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)	4 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
MetLife	18 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	6 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more volatility & risk, AFL or MET?

Aflac has a beta of 0.81, indicating that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MetLife has a beta of 0.89, indicating that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

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