Prudential (PUK) Competitors

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

Do analysts rate PUK or MFC?

Manulife Financial has a consensus price target of $37.50, indicating a potential upside of 14.82%. Given Manulife Financial's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Manulife Financial is more favorable than Prudential.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Prudential	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Manulife Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has better earnings and valuation, PUK or MFC?

Manulife Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Prudential.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Prudential	$19.50B	1.12	$1.70B	N/A	N/A
Manulife Financial	$36.10B	1.58	$4.05B	$2.07	15.78

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of PUK or MFC?

1.9% of Prudential shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.6% of Manulife Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Prudential shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of Manulife Financial shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is PUK or MFC a better dividend stock?

Prudential pays an annual dividend of $0.27 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Manulife Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Manulife Financial pays out 56.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Manulife Financial has increased its dividend for 11 consecutive years. Manulife Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Is PUK or MFC more profitable?

Manulife Financial has a net margin of 9.79% compared to Prudential's net margin of 0.00%. Manulife Financial's return on equity of 16.11% beat Prudential's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Prudential	N/A	N/A	N/A
Manulife Financial	9.79%	16.11%	0.77%

Does the media refer more to PUK or MFC?

In the previous week, Manulife Financial had 12 more articles in the media than Prudential. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for Manulife Financial and 4 mentions for Prudential. Prudential's average media sentiment score of 0.87 beat Manulife Financial's score of 0.87 indicating that Prudential is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Prudential	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Manulife Financial	6 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk & volatility, PUK or MFC?

Prudential has a beta of 1.23, meaning that its share price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Manulife Financial has a beta of 1.08, meaning that its share price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer PUK or MFC?

Manulife Financial received 6 more outperform votes than Prudential when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 67.95% of users gave Manulife Financial an outperform vote while only 61.83% of users gave Prudential an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Prudential	Outperform Votes 452 61.83%	Underperform Votes 279 38.17%
Manulife Financial	Outperform Votes 458 67.95%	Underperform Votes 216 32.05%

Summary

Manulife Financial beats Prudential on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.