AFL vs. CNC, HUM, PFG, IBKR, TRV, SPG, MFG, ALL, O, and PSA
Should you be buying Aflac stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Aflac include Centene (CNC), Humana (HUM), Principal Financial Group (PFG), Interactive Brokers Group (IBKR), Travelers Companies (TRV), Simon Property Group (SPG), Mizuho Financial Group (MFG), Allstate (ALL), Realty Income (O), and Public Storage (PSA).
Aflac (NYSE:AFL) and Centene (NYSE:CNC) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, earnings, profitability, community ranking, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership and media sentiment.
Aflac has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Centene. Aflac is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Centene, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, Centene had 22 more articles in the media than Aflac. MarketBeat recorded 38 mentions for Centene and 16 mentions for Aflac. Aflac's average media sentiment score of 0.86 beat Centene's score of 0.68 indicating that Aflac is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Aflac has a beta of 0.91, indicating that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Centene has a beta of 0.38, indicating that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Aflac currently has a consensus price target of $82.15, indicating a potential downside of 1.74%. Centene has a consensus price target of $85.25, indicating a potential upside of 15.20%. Given Centene's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Centene is more favorable than Aflac.
Centene received 439 more outperform votes than Aflac when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 73.24% of users gave Centene an outperform vote while only 57.44% of users gave Aflac an outperform vote.
67.4% of Aflac shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.6% of Centene shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Aflac shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Centene shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Aflac has a net margin of 24.92% compared to Centene's net margin of 1.75%. Aflac's return on equity of 17.59% beat Centene's return on equity.
Summary
Centene beats Aflac on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.
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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.
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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