MetLife, Inc. $MET Shares Purchased by Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 3.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 40,545 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,366 shares during the quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in MetLife were worth $3,255,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in MetLife by 33.7% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 24,663,239 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,019,427,000 after purchasing an additional 6,213,923 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in MetLife by 0.4% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,862,835 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $711,597,000 after purchasing an additional 36,177 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in MetLife by 15.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,052,202 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $577,434,000 after purchasing an additional 958,458 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in MetLife by 3.7% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,671,435 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $535,568,000 after purchasing an additional 236,698 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in MetLife by 1.4% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,462,541 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $518,877,000 after purchasing an additional 87,344 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on MET. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of MetLife from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 7th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $97.00 target price (up from $94.00) on shares of MetLife in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of MetLife from $98.00 to $94.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on shares of MetLife from $94.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MetLife currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.60.

MetLife Stock Performance

NYSE:MET opened at $78.9760 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $77.82 and its 200 day moving average price is $78.60. MetLife, Inc. has a 1-year low of $65.21 and a 1-year high of $89.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.16 and a quick ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market cap of $52.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.85.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.32 by ($0.30). MetLife had a net margin of 5.83% and a return on equity of 19.88%. The firm had revenue of $17.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.28 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 EPS for the current year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 5th will be given a $0.5675 dividend. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 5th. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.47%.

MetLife announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, April 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to purchase up to 5.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

MetLife Company Profile

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.