Aflac (AFL) Competitors

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

Which has higher earnings and valuation, MET or AFL?

Aflac has lower revenue, but higher earnings than MetLife. Aflac 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	$69.90B	0.74	$4.43B	$5.97	12.69
Aflac	$19.13B	2.96	$5.44B	$9.60	10.79

Which has more risk & volatility, MET or AFL?

MetLife has a beta of 0.89, suggesting that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aflac has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is MET or AFL a better dividend stock?

MetLife pays an annual dividend of $2.27 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Aflac pays an annual dividend of $2.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. MetLife pays out 38.0% 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. MetLife has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years and Aflac has raised its dividend for 44 consecutive years.

Does the media prefer MET or AFL?

In the previous week, MetLife had 2 more articles in the media than Aflac. MarketBeat recorded 36 mentions for MetLife and 34 mentions for Aflac. Aflac's average media sentiment score of 0.76 beat MetLife's score of 0.72 indicating that Aflac is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
MetLife	20 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Aflac	16 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	11 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

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

95.0% of MetLife shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.4% of Aflac shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of MetLife shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Aflac shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts recommend MET or AFL?

MetLife presently has a consensus target price of $92.46, indicating a potential upside of 22.05%. Aflac has a consensus target price of $104.00, indicating a potential upside of 0.38%. Given MetLife's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe MetLife is more favorable than Aflac.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MetLife	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	13 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.93
Aflac	2 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Is MET or AFL more profitable?

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.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MetLife	6.19%	20.42%	0.86%
Aflac	28.76%	16.20%	3.32%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer MET or AFL?

MetLife received 385 more outperform votes than Aflac when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 73.98% of users gave MetLife an outperform vote while only 55.78% of users gave Aflac an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
MetLife	Outperform Votes 964 73.98%	Underperform Votes 339 26.02%
Aflac	Outperform Votes 579 55.78%	Underperform Votes 459 44.22%

Summary

MetLife beats Aflac on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.