Manulife Financial (MFC) Competitors

Brighthouse Financial (NASDAQ:BHF) and Manulife Financial (NYSE:MFC) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Do analysts prefer BHF or MFC?

Brighthouse Financial currently has a consensus price target of $60.60, indicating a potential upside of 16.25%. Manulife Financial has a consensus price target of $48.50, indicating a potential upside of 57.88%. Given Manulife Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Manulife Financial is more favorable than Brighthouse Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Brighthouse Financial	2 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.11
Manulife Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

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

81.2% of Brighthouse Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.6% of Manulife Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of Brighthouse Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of Manulife Financial shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media refer more to BHF or MFC?

In the previous week, Brighthouse Financial had 6 more articles in the media than Manulife Financial. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for Brighthouse Financial and 6 mentions for Manulife Financial. Manulife Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.98 beat Brighthouse Financial's score of 0.03 indicating that Manulife Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Brighthouse Financial	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Manulife Financial	3 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, BHF or MFC?

Manulife Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Brighthouse Financial. Brighthouse Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Manulife 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
Brighthouse Financial	$4.72B	0.63	$388M	$8.34	6.25
Manulife Financial	$38.90B	1.35	$4.11B	$1.91	16.08

Which has more volatility and risk, BHF or MFC?

Brighthouse Financial has a beta of 0.88, meaning that its share price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Manulife Financial has a beta of 0.99, meaning that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is BHF or MFC more profitable?

Manulife Financial has a net margin of 9.58% compared to Brighthouse Financial's net margin of 8.71%. Brighthouse Financial's return on equity of 25.60% beat Manulife Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Brighthouse Financial	8.71%	25.60%	0.54%
Manulife Financial	9.58%	15.84%	0.75%

Summary

Manulife Financial beats Brighthouse Financial on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.