First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Purchases Shares of 2,874 MetLife, Inc. $MET

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. purchased a new stake in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 2,874 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $231,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in MetLife by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 30,369 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,442,000 after buying an additional 291 shares during the period. Strategic Blueprint LLC grew its holdings in MetLife by 25.0% in the 2nd quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 4,386 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $353,000 after buying an additional 878 shares during the period. Freedom Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in MetLife by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,456 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $841,000 after buying an additional 816 shares during the period. Forum Financial Management LP grew its holdings in MetLife by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 13,607 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,094,000 after buying an additional 151 shares during the period. Finally, Ethic Inc. grew its holdings in MetLife by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 115,127 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,253,000 after buying an additional 7,405 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on MetLife from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Piper Sandler lowered MetLife from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $84.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, September 19th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on MetLife from $94.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Barclays lifted their price objective on MetLife from $93.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on MetLife from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.18.

MetLife Stock Performance

MetLife stock opened at $78.71 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $80.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $78.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $52.34 billion, a PE ratio of 13.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.86. 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, Inc. has a one year low of $65.21 and a one year high of $89.05.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last released its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $17.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.58 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 19.88% and a net margin of 5.83%.The business’s revenue was down 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.28 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 9th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 4th will be given a $0.5675 dividend. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 4th. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.47%.

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.