MetLife (MET) Competitors

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

Which has more risk and volatility, PRU or MET?

Prudential Financial has a beta of 1.37, suggesting that its share price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MetLife has a beta of 1.04, suggesting that its share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend PRU or MET?

Prudential Financial presently has a consensus target price of $111.42, suggesting a potential upside of 0.83%. MetLife has a consensus target price of $79.23, suggesting a potential upside of 12.51%. Given Prudential Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe MetLife 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
MetLife	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.92

Is PRU or MET a better dividend stock?

Prudential Financial pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. MetLife pays an annual dividend of $2.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. 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. MetLife pays out 113.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Prudential Financial has raised its dividend for 16 consecutive years and MetLife has raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years. Prudential Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the media refer more to PRU or MET?

In the previous week, MetLife had 7 more articles in the media than Prudential Financial. MarketBeat recorded 22 mentions for MetLife and 15 mentions for Prudential Financial. MetLife's average media sentiment score of 0.67 beat Prudential Financial's score of 0.44 indicating that Prudential Financial is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Prudential Financial	4 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
MetLife	8 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, PRU or MET?

Prudential Financial has higher earnings, but lower revenue than MetLife. Prudential Financial 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
Prudential Financial	$50.89B	0.78	$2.49B	$6.69	16.52
MetLife	$66.91B	0.76	$1.58B	$1.83	38.48

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

56.8% of Prudential Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.8% of MetLife shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Prudential Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of MetLife shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is PRU or MET more profitable?

Prudential Financial has a net margin of 4.89% compared to Prudential Financial's net margin of 2.36%. Prudential Financial's return on equity of 19.48% beat MetLife's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Prudential Financial	4.89%	14.52%	0.61%
MetLife	2.36%	19.48%	0.86%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer PRU or MET?

MetLife received 73 more outperform votes than Prudential Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 73.48% of users gave MetLife an outperform vote while only 65.05% of users gave Prudential Financial an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Prudential Financial	Outperform Votes 847 65.05%	Underperform Votes 455 34.95%
MetLife	Outperform Votes 920 73.48%	Underperform Votes 332 26.52%

Summary

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