Fidelity National Financial (NYSE:FNF) versus MetLife (NYSE:MET) Head-To-Head Comparison

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

81.2% of Fidelity National Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.0% of MetLife shares are held by institutional investors. 5.5% of Fidelity National Financial shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of MetLife shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Fidelity National Financial and MetLife’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fidelity National Financial	7.93%	14.30%	1.28%
MetLife	5.83%	19.88%	0.82%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Fidelity National Financial and MetLife, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fidelity National Financial	0	1	4	0	2.80
MetLife	0	2	10	1	2.92

Fidelity National Financial currently has a consensus target price of $70.00, suggesting a potential upside of 20.20%. MetLife has a consensus target price of $95.00, suggesting a potential upside of 20.79%. Given MetLife’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe MetLife is more favorable than Fidelity National Financial.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Fidelity National Financial and MetLife”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fidelity National Financial	$13.72 billion	1.15	$1.27 billion	$4.30	13.54
MetLife	$70.80 billion	0.73	$4.43 billion	$5.31	14.81

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

Risk and Volatility

Fidelity National Financial has a beta of 1.05, suggesting that its share price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MetLife has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Fidelity National Financial pays an annual dividend of $2.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. MetLife pays an annual dividend of $2.27 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Fidelity National Financial pays out 48.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MetLife pays out 42.7% 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. Fidelity National Financial has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years and MetLife has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years.

Summary

MetLife beats Fidelity National Financial on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Fidelity National Financial

Fidelity National Financial, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides various insurance products in the United States. The company operates through Title, F&G, and Corporate and Other segments. It offers title insurance, escrow, and other title related services, including trust activities, trustee sales guarantees, recordings and reconveyances, and home warranty products. The company also provides technology and transaction services to the real estate and mortgage industries; and mortgage transaction services, including title-related services and facilitation of production and management of mortgage loans. In addition, it offers annuity and life insurance products, such as deferred and immediate annuities, as well as indexed universal life insurance products; and funding agreements and pension risk transfer (PRT) solutions. Further, the company engages in the real estate brokerage business. Fidelity National Financial, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.

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.