CX Institutional Boosts Holdings in MetLife, Inc. $MET

CX Institutional grew its holdings in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 73,687 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 628 shares during the quarter. CX Institutional’s holdings in MetLife were worth $5,926,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MET. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of MetLife by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 422,684 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $33,937,000 after acquiring an additional 19,192 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its holdings in MetLife by 52.1% during the first quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 9,355 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $751,000 after purchasing an additional 3,204 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc purchased a new position in shares of MetLife in the first quarter valued at about $255,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in MetLife by 20.7% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 60,785 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,735,000 after acquiring an additional 10,414 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Heartland Bank & Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of MetLife in the first quarter valued at $516,000. 94.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on MET. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of MetLife from $98.00 to $94.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $97.00 price objective (up from $94.00) on shares of MetLife in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Piper Sandler downgraded shares of MetLife from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $84.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday. UBS Group dropped their price target on MetLife from $94.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on MetLife from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MetLife presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $94.64.

MetLife Stock Performance

NYSE MET opened at $79.16 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $78.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $78.15. MetLife, Inc. has a twelve month low of $65.21 and a twelve month high of $89.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The stock has a market cap of $52.64 billion, a PE ratio of 13.42, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.87.

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

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 9th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 5th were given a dividend of $0.5675 per share. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 5th. MetLife’s payout ratio is presently 38.47%.

MetLife 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.