MetLife (MET) Competitors

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

Do institutionals & insiders believe in AFL or MET?

67.4% of Aflac shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.8% of MetLife shares are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of Aflac shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of MetLife shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility and risk, AFL or MET?

Aflac has a beta of 0.96, meaning that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MetLife has a beta of 1.05, meaning that its share price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend AFL or MET?

Aflac presently has a consensus target price of $97.93, suggesting a potential downside of 11.16%. MetLife has a consensus target price of $88.46, suggesting a potential upside of 7.10%. 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	3 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
MetLife	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	13 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Is AFL or MET more profitable?

Aflac has a net margin of 22.02% compared to MetLife's net margin of 5.27%. MetLife's return on equity of 20.01% beat Aflac's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aflac	22.02%	16.34%	3.15%
MetLife	5.27%	20.01%	0.86%

Does the media prefer AFL or MET?

In the previous week, MetLife had 15 more articles in the media than Aflac. MarketBeat recorded 36 mentions for MetLife and 21 mentions for Aflac. Aflac's average media sentiment score of 1.09 beat MetLife's score of 0.71 indicating that Aflac is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Aflac	14 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
MetLife	20 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	14 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is AFL or MET a better dividend stock?

Aflac pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. MetLife pays an annual dividend of $2.18 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Aflac pays out 30.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MetLife pays out 44.0% 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 MetLife has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer AFL or MET?

MetLife received 369 more outperform votes than Aflac when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 73.79% of users gave MetLife an outperform vote while only 56.74% of users gave Aflac an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Aflac	Outperform Votes 577 56.74%	Underperform Votes 440 43.26%
MetLife	Outperform Votes 946 73.79%	Underperform Votes 336 26.21%

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	$18.70B	3.27	$4.66B	$6.64	16.60
MetLife	$66.91B	0.85	$1.58B	$4.96	16.65

Summary

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