Prudential Financial (PRU) Competitors

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

Which has more risk & volatility, PRU or AFL?

Prudential Financial has a beta of 1.31, suggesting that its share price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aflac has a beta of 1, suggesting that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of 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 insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Aflac shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, PRU or AFL?

Aflac has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Prudential Financial. Prudential Financial 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
Prudential Financial	$50.89B	0.83	$2.49B	$11.25	10.58
Aflac	$18.70B	3.16	$4.66B	$6.64	16.03

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer PRU or AFL?

Prudential Financial received 274 more outperform votes than Aflac when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.98% of users gave Prudential Financial an outperform vote while only 56.29% of users gave Aflac an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Prudential Financial	Outperform Votes 851 63.98%	Underperform Votes 479 36.02%
Aflac	Outperform Votes 577 56.29%	Underperform Votes 448 43.71%

Do analysts rate PRU or AFL?

Prudential Financial presently has a consensus price target of $127.25, suggesting a potential upside of 6.95%. Aflac has a consensus price target of $102.07, suggesting a potential downside of 4.10%. Given Prudential Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Prudential Financial is more favorable than Aflac.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Prudential Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	11 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.23
Aflac	2 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.07

Does the media favor PRU or AFL?

In the previous week, Aflac had 3 more articles in the media than Prudential Financial. MarketBeat recorded 27 mentions for Aflac and 24 mentions for Prudential Financial. Aflac's average media sentiment score of 0.92 beat Prudential Financial's score of 0.56 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	10 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Aflac	14 Very Positive mention(s)	5 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is PRU or AFL more profitable?

Aflac has a net margin of 22.02% compared to Prudential Financial's net margin of 6.03%. Aflac's return on equity of 16.34% beat Prudential Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Prudential Financial	6.03%	15.30%	0.63%
Aflac	22.02%	16.34%	3.15%

Is PRU or AFL a better dividend stock?

Prudential Financial pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. Aflac pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Prudential Financial pays out 46.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Aflac pays out 30.1% 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.

Summary

Aflac beats Prudential Financial on 13 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.