Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. Makes New Investment in MetLife, Inc. $MET

Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. acquired a new position in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 2,698 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $210,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MET. North Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in MetLife during the first quarter worth approximately $26,000. Motco lifted its position in MetLife by 105.5% during the first quarter. Motco now owns 413 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 212 shares during the last quarter. GFG Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MetLife in the second quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Abound Wealth Management raised its position in shares of MetLife by 652.3% in the second quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 489 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 424 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legend Financial Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of MetLife in the second quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 94.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of MetLife from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of MetLife from $94.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of MetLife in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of MetLife from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MetLife to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MetLife currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.18.

MetLife Stock Performance

NYSE MET opened at $80.79 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $79.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $78.09. The stock has a market cap of $53.73 billion, a PE ratio of 13.69, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.86. MetLife, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $65.21 and a fifty-two week high of $89.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a current ratio of 0.16.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last posted its earnings results 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). The company had revenue of $17.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.58 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 19.88% and a net margin of 5.83%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.28 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 9th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.5675 per share. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 4th. MetLife’s payout ratio is presently 38.47%.

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.