MetLife (MET) Competitors

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

Do institutionals & insiders believe in MET or AFL?

95.0% of MetLife shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.4% of Aflac shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of MetLife shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Aflac shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts rate MET or AFL?

MetLife presently has a consensus target price of $95.50, indicating a potential upside of 23.42%. Aflac has a consensus target price of $107.07, indicating a potential upside of 5.52%. Given MetLife's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe MetLife is more favorable than Aflac.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MetLife	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.92
Aflac	2 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.07

Is MET or AFL a better dividend stock?

MetLife pays an annual dividend of $2.27 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Aflac pays an annual dividend of $2.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. MetLife pays out 36.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Aflac pays out 36.3% 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. MetLife has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years and Aflac has increased its dividend for 44 consecutive years.

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, MET or AFL?

Aflac has lower revenue, but higher earnings than MetLife. MetLife is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Aflac, 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
MetLife	$70.99B	0.73	$4.43B	$6.15	12.58
Aflac	$18.93B	2.90	$5.44B	$6.40	15.85

Which has more volatility & risk, MET or AFL?

MetLife has a beta of 0.85, suggesting that its stock price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aflac has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor MET or AFL?

In the previous week, MetLife had 18 more articles in the media than Aflac. MarketBeat recorded 42 mentions for MetLife and 24 mentions for Aflac. Aflac's average media sentiment score of 1.08 beat MetLife's score of 0.51 indicating that Aflac is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
MetLife	17 Very Positive mention(s)	5 Positive mention(s)	18 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Aflac	19 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is MET or AFL more profitable?

Aflac has a net margin of 21.27% compared to MetLife's net margin of 6.08%. MetLife's return on equity of 20.89% beat Aflac's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MetLife	6.08%	20.89%	0.87%
Aflac	21.27%	15.55%	3.30%

Summary

Aflac beats MetLife on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.