Analyzing MetLife (NYSE:MET) and Everest Group (NYSE:EG)

MetLife (NYSE:MET) and Everest Group (NYSE:EG) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends and valuation.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares MetLife and Everest Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MetLife	$75.98 billion	0.79	$3.38 billion	$5.16	18.08
Everest Group	$16.93 billion	0.88	$1.59 billion	$49.17	7.66

MetLife has higher revenue and earnings than Everest Group. Everest Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MetLife, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for MetLife and Everest Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MetLife	0	2	11	1	2.93
Everest Group	0	12	4	0	2.25

MetLife presently has a consensus price target of $99.29, suggesting a potential upside of 6.43%. Everest Group has a consensus price target of $387.73, suggesting a potential upside of 2.88%. Given MetLife’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe MetLife is more favorable than Everest Group.

Dividends

MetLife pays an annual dividend of $2.37 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Everest Group pays an annual dividend of $8.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. MetLife pays out 45.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Everest Group pays out 16.3% 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 increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years and Everest Group has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. MetLife is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

95.0% of MetLife shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.6% of Everest Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of MetLife shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Everest Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

MetLife has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Everest Group has a beta of 0.29, suggesting that its share price is 71% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares MetLife and Everest Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MetLife	4.66%	22.60%	0.88%
Everest Group	11.76%	14.70%	3.63%

Summary

MetLife beats Everest Group on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MetLife

MetLife, Inc., a financial services company, provides insurance, annuities, employee benefits, and asset management services worldwide. It operates through six segments: Retirement and Income Solutions; Group Benefits; Asia; Latin America; Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and MetLife Holdings. The company offers life, dental, group short-and long-term disability, individual disability, pet insurance, accidental death and dismemberment, vision, and accident and health coverages, as well as prepaid legal plans; administrative services-only arrangements to employers; and general and separate account, and synthetic guaranteed interest contracts, as well as private floating rate funding agreements. It also provides pension risk transfers, institutional income annuities, structured settlements, and capital markets investment products; and other products and services, such as life insurance products and funding agreements for funding postretirement benefits, as well as company, bank, or trust-owned life insurance used to finance nonqualified benefit programs for executives. In addition, it provides fixed, indexed-linked, and variable annuities; pension products; regular savings products; whole and term life, endowments, universal and variable life, and group life products; longevity reinsurance solutions; credit insurance products; and protection against long-term health care services. MetLife, Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is based in New York, New York.

About Everest Group

Everest Group, Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides reinsurance and insurance products in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company operates through two segment, Insurance and Reinsurance. The Reinsurance segment writes property and casualty reinsurance; and specialty lines of business through reinsurance brokers, as well as directly with ceding companies in the United States, Bermuda, Ireland, Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The Insurance Operations segment writes property and casualty insurance directly, as well as through brokers, surplus lines, and general agents in the United States, Bermuda, Canada, Europe, South America, Singapore, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, Chile, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands. The company also provides treaty and facultative reinsurance products; admitted and non-admitted insurance products; and accident and health, specialty underwriters, eversports and entertainment, and surety and credit, marine and aviation, as well as structured and property hybrid solutions. In addition, it offers commercial property and casualty insurance products through wholesale and retail brokers, surplus lines brokers, and program administrators. The company was formerly known as Everest Re Group, Ltd. and changed its name to Everest Group, Ltd. in July 2023.Everest Group, Ltd., was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.