Manulife Financial (MFC) Competitors

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

Is PRU or MFC more profitable?

Manulife Financial has a net margin of 10.42% compared to Manulife Financial's net margin of 4.89%. Prudential Financial's return on equity of 15.98% beat Manulife Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Prudential Financial	4.89%	14.52%	0.61%
Manulife Financial	10.42%	15.98%	0.78%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer PRU or MFC?

Prudential Financial received 392 more outperform votes than Manulife Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 67.91% of users gave Manulife Financial an outperform vote while only 65.10% of users gave Prudential Financial an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Prudential Financial	Outperform Votes 847 65.10%	Underperform Votes 454 34.90%
Manulife Financial	Outperform Votes 455 67.91%	Underperform Votes 215 32.09%

Which has more risk and volatility, PRU or MFC?

Prudential Financial has a beta of 1.37, meaning that its share price is 37% 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.

Is PRU or MFC a better dividend stock?

Prudential Financial pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Manulife Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.19 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.2%. 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. Manulife Financial pays out 61.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Prudential Financial has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years and Manulife Financial has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Manulife Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do analysts recommend PRU or MFC?

Prudential Financial currently has a consensus target price of $111.33, indicating a potential upside of 2.72%. Manulife Financial has a consensus target price of $33.33, indicating a potential upside of 45.69%. Given Prudential Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Manulife Financial is more favorable than Prudential Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Prudential Financial	2 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.83
Manulife Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has better valuation & earnings, PRU or MFC?

Manulife Financial has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Prudential Financial. Manulife Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Prudential Financial, 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	$54.27B	0.72	$2.49B	$6.69	16.17
Manulife Financial	$36.10B	1.14	$4.05B	$1.93	11.83

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of PRU or MFC?

56.8% of Prudential Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.6% of Manulife Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Prudential Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of Manulife Financial shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media favor PRU or MFC?

In the previous week, Prudential Financial had 11 more articles in the media than Manulife Financial. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for Prudential Financial and 5 mentions for Manulife Financial. Prudential Financial's average media sentiment score of 1.52 beat Manulife Financial's score of 0.66 indicating that Manulife Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Prudential Financial	6 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Manulife Financial	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Summary

Manulife Financial beats Prudential Financial on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.