MetLife, Inc. $MET Shares Sold by LRI Investments LLC

LRI Investments LLC lowered its stake in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 30.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 947 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 416 shares during the quarter. LRI Investments LLC’s holdings in MetLife were worth $76,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Kathmere Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of MetLife by 88.2% during the 2nd quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 6,328 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $509,000 after acquiring an additional 2,965 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of MetLife by 4.8% during the 1st quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 422,684 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $33,937,000 after acquiring an additional 19,192 shares during the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of MetLife by 52.1% during the 1st quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 9,355 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $751,000 after acquiring an additional 3,204 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc acquired a new stake in MetLife during the 1st quarter worth approximately $255,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in MetLife by 20.7% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 60,785 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,735,000 after purchasing an additional 10,414 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 recently issued reports on MET. Wolfe Research raised shares of MetLife to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of MetLife from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of MetLife in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. 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 research report on Friday, September 19th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.18.

MetLife Stock Performance

MetLife stock opened at $80.79 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $53.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.86. 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 50 day moving average of $79.80 and a 200-day moving average of $78.09. MetLife, Inc. has a 52 week low of $65.21 and a 52 week high of $89.05.

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

MetLife Dividend Announcement

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