Head to Head Contrast: MetLife (NYSE:MET) vs. Goosehead Insurance (NASDAQ:GSHD)

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

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MetLife	$77.08 billion	0.81	$3.38 billion	$5.22	18.68
Goosehead Insurance	$365.30 million	6.34	$27.83 million	$1.37	47.60

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

Volatility and Risk

MetLife has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Goosehead Insurance has a beta of 1.36, suggesting that its stock price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for MetLife and Goosehead Insurance, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MetLife	0	1	11	1	3.00
Goosehead Insurance	1	6	7	0	2.43

MetLife currently has a consensus target price of $102.21, indicating a potential upside of 4.82%. Goosehead Insurance has a consensus target price of $68.45, indicating a potential upside of 4.98%. Given Goosehead Insurance’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Goosehead Insurance is more favorable than MetLife.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MetLife	4.57%	23.39%	0.89%
Goosehead Insurance	8.78%	-21.00%	9.43%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

95.0% of MetLife shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of MetLife shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 38.1% of Goosehead Insurance shares are owned by 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.

Summary

MetLife beats Goosehead Insurance on 8 of the 15 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 Goosehead Insurance

Goosehead Insurance, Inc. operates as a holding company for Goosehead Financial, LLC that engages in the provision of personal lines insurance agency services in the United States. The company offers homeowner’s, automotive, dwelling property, flood, wind, earthquake, excess liability or umbrella, motorcycle, recreational vehicle, general liability, property, and life insurance products and services. As of December 31, 2023, it operated 1,415 franchise locations. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Westlake, Texas.