Prudential Financial (PRU) Competitors

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

Do analysts prefer PRU or AFL?

Prudential Financial presently has a consensus price target of $122.77, suggesting a potential upside of 20.97%. Aflac has a consensus price target of $103.93, suggesting a potential downside of 4.23%. Given Prudential Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Prudential Financial is more favorable than Aflac.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Prudential Financial	1 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.15
Aflac	2 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Is PRU or AFL more profitable?

Aflac has a net margin of 28.76% compared to Prudential Financial's net margin of 4.01%. Aflac's return on equity of 16.20% beat Prudential Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Prudential Financial	4.01%	15.86%	0.64%
Aflac	28.76%	16.20%	3.32%

Is PRU or AFL a better dividend stock?

Prudential Financial pays an annual dividend of $5.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. Aflac pays an annual dividend of $2.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Prudential Financial pays out 72.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Aflac pays out 24.2% 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.

Which has more volatility & risk, PRU or AFL?

Prudential Financial has a beta of 1.11, indicating that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aflac has a beta of 0.81, indicating that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, PRU or AFL?

Aflac has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Prudential Financial. Aflac is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Prudential Financial, 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
Prudential Financial	$70.65B	0.51	$2.73B	$7.47	13.59
Aflac	$19.13B	3.10	$5.44B	$9.60	11.30

Does the media refer more to PRU or AFL?

In the previous week, Prudential Financial had 4 more articles in the media than Aflac. MarketBeat recorded 33 mentions for Prudential Financial and 29 mentions for Aflac. Aflac's average media sentiment score of 1.15 beat Prudential Financial's score of 1.07 indicating that Aflac is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Prudential Financial	21 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Aflac	20 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer PRU or AFL?

Prudential Financial received 272 more outperform votes than Aflac when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.41% of users gave Prudential Financial an outperform vote while only 55.83% of users gave Aflac an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Prudential Financial	Outperform Votes 851 63.41%	Underperform Votes 491 36.59%
Aflac	Outperform Votes 579 55.83%	Underperform Votes 458 44.17%

Do insiders and institutionals believe in PRU or AFL?

56.8% of Prudential Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.4% of Aflac shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Prudential Financial shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Aflac shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Aflac beats Prudential Financial on 12 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.