Contrasting Security National Financial (NASDAQ:SNFCA) and MetLife (NYSE:MET)

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

45.6% of Security National Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.0% of MetLife shares are owned by institutional investors. 15.0% of Security National Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of MetLife shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Security National Financial has a beta of 0.68, meaning that its share price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MetLife has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Security National Financial and MetLife, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Security National Financial	0	1	0	0	2.00
MetLife	0	0	12	0	3.00

MetLife has a consensus target price of $104.31, suggesting a potential upside of 10.47%. Given MetLife’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe MetLife is more favorable than Security National Financial.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Security National Financial	11.10%	9.13%	2.36%
MetLife	4.57%	23.39%	0.89%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Security National Financial and MetLife”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Security National Financial	$336.73 million	0.71	$32.15 million	$1.39	6.26
MetLife	$77.73 billion	0.78	$3.38 billion	$5.22	18.09

MetLife has higher revenue and earnings than Security National Financial. Security 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.

Summary

MetLife beats Security National Financial on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Security National Financial

Security National Financial Corporation engages in the life insurance, cemetery and mortuary, and mortgage businesses. The company's Life Insurance segment is involved in selling and servicing lines of life insurance, annuity products, and accident and health insurance. It offers various life insurance products, including funeral plans and interest-sensitive life insurance, as well as other traditional life, accident, and health insurance products; annuity products comprising single and flexible premium deferred annuities, and immediate annuities; and diver's accident insurance policies. This segment also cedes and assumes various risks with various authorized unaffiliated reinsurers pursuant to reinsurance treaties. Its Cemetery and Mortuary segment operates eight mortuaries and five cemeteries in Utah; one cemetery in California; and four mortuaries and one cemetery in New Mexico. This segment also offers plots, interment vaults, mausoleum crypts, markers, caskets, urns, and other death care related products; and provides professional services of funeral directors, opening and closing of graves, use of chapels and viewing rooms, and use of automobiles and clothing. The company's Mortgages segment originates and underwrites residential and commercial loans for new construction, existing homes, and real estate projects primarily in Florida, Nevada, Texas, and Utah. It offers residential mortgage lending services to real estate brokers and builders, as well as directly with consumers. Security National Financial Corporation was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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.