MetLife (NYSE:MET) and Acmat (OTCMKTS:ACMTA) Critical Contrast

MetLife (NYSE:MET) and Acmat (OTCMKTS:ACMTA) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability and risk.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares MetLife and Acmat”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MetLife	$70.99 billion	0.75	$4.43 billion	$6.15	12.93
Acmat	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

MetLife has higher revenue and earnings than Acmat.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MetLife	6.08%	20.89%	0.87%
Acmat	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider & Institutional Ownership

95.0% of MetLife shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of MetLife shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.8% of Acmat shares are held by company 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.

Volatility & Risk

MetLife has a beta of 0.85, indicating that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Acmat has a beta of -0.28, indicating that its share price is 128% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for MetLife and Acmat, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MetLife	0	1	12	0	2.92
Acmat	0	0	0	0	0.00

MetLife currently has a consensus price target of $94.17, indicating a potential upside of 18.45%. Given MetLife’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe MetLife is more favorable than Acmat.

Summary

MetLife beats Acmat on 9 of the 10 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 Acmat

ACMAT Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides surety bonds primarily for construction contractors in the United States. The company offers surety bonds for prime, sub-prime, specialty trade, environmental, asbestos, and lead abatement contractors, as well as for miscellaneous obligations. It also provides miscellaneous surety comprising workers’ compensation, supply, subdivision, and license and permit bonds. The company was founded in 1950 and is based in Farmington, Connecticut.