Prudential Financial (PRU) Competitors

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

Does the MarketBeat Community favor MET or PRU?

MetLife received 73 more outperform votes than Prudential Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 73.48% of users gave MetLife an outperform vote while only 65.05% of users gave Prudential Financial an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
MetLife	Outperform Votes 920 73.48%	Underperform Votes 332 26.52%
Prudential Financial	Outperform Votes 847 65.05%	Underperform Votes 455 34.95%

Do analysts rate MET or PRU?

MetLife currently has a consensus price target of $79.23, indicating a potential upside of 12.51%. Prudential Financial has a consensus price target of $111.42, indicating a potential upside of 0.83%. Given Prudential Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe MetLife is more favorable than Prudential Financial.

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
Prudential Financial	2 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.83

Is MET or PRU more profitable?

Prudential Financial has a net margin of 4.89% compared to Prudential Financial's net margin of 2.36%. Prudential Financial's return on equity of 19.48% beat MetLife's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MetLife	2.36%	19.48%	0.86%
Prudential Financial	4.89%	14.52%	0.61%

Which has more volatility and risk, MET or PRU?

MetLife has a beta of 1.04, suggesting that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Prudential Financial has a beta of 1.37, suggesting that its stock price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is MET or PRU a better dividend stock?

MetLife pays an annual dividend of $2.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Prudential Financial pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. MetLife pays out 113.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Prudential Financial pays out 77.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. MetLife has raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years and Prudential Financial has raised its dividend for 16 consecutive years. Prudential Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the media prefer MET or PRU?

In the previous week, MetLife had 9 more articles in the media than Prudential Financial. MarketBeat recorded 23 mentions for MetLife and 14 mentions for Prudential Financial. MetLife's average media sentiment score of 0.67 beat Prudential Financial's score of 0.44 indicating that Prudential Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
MetLife	9 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Prudential Financial	4 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of MET or PRU?

89.8% of MetLife shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.8% of Prudential Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of MetLife shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Prudential Financial shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, MET or PRU?

Prudential Financial has lower revenue, but higher earnings than MetLife. Prudential Financial 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
MetLife	$66.91B	0.76	$1.58B	$1.83	38.48
Prudential Financial	$54.27B	0.73	$2.49B	$6.69	16.52

Summary

MetLife beats Prudential Financial on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.