AFL vs. MET, PRU, UNM, PRI, LNC, CNO, CIA, PFG, HSBC, and AXP
Should you be buying Aflac stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Aflac include MetLife (MET), Prudential Financial (PRU), Unum Group (UNM), Primerica (PRI), Lincoln National (LNC), CNO Financial Group (CNO), Citizens (CIA), Principal Financial Group (PFG), HSBC (HSBC), and American Express (AXP). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.
Aflac vs. Its Competitors
MetLife (NYSE:MET) and Aflac (NYSE:AFL) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, media sentiment, community ranking, profitability and institutional ownership.
MetLife has a beta of 0.86, indicating that its stock price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aflac has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.
MetLife received 387 more outperform votes than Aflac when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 73.99% of users gave MetLife an outperform vote while only 55.61% of users gave Aflac an outperform vote.
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 36.2% 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. MetLife has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years and Aflac has increased its dividend for 44 consecutive years.
95.0% of MetLife shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.4% of Aflac shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of MetLife shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Aflac shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Aflac has a net margin of 28.76% compared to MetLife's net margin of 6.19%. MetLife's return on equity of 20.42% beat Aflac's return on equity.
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.
MetLife currently has a consensus price target of $94.17, indicating a potential upside of 19.36%. Aflac has a consensus price target of $104.93, indicating a potential upside of 3.64%. Given MetLife's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe MetLife is more favorable than Aflac.
In the previous week, MetLife had 17 more articles in the media than Aflac. MarketBeat recorded 36 mentions for MetLife and 19 mentions for Aflac. Aflac's average media sentiment score of 1.55 beat MetLife's score of 0.48 indicating that Aflac is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Summary
MetLife beats Aflac on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AFL and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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This page (NYSE:AFL) was last updated on 6/12/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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