KBC Group NV Lowers Stock Holdings in MetLife, Inc. $MET

KBC Group NV cut its stake in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 24.9% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,361,677 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 451,034 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in MetLife were worth $109,506,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Quaker Wealth Management LLC grew its position in MetLife by 198.2% in the 2nd quarter. Quaker Wealth Management LLC now owns 333 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 672 shares during the last quarter. Motco lifted its stake in shares of MetLife by 105.5% in the 1st quarter. Motco now owns 413 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 212 shares during the period. GFG Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MetLife in the second quarter valued at about $38,000. Abound Wealth Management raised its holdings in MetLife by 652.3% during the second quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 489 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 424 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legend Financial Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in MetLife in the second quarter valued at about $40,000. 94.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on MetLife from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on MetLife from $92.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of MetLife in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of MetLife from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised MetLife to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.00.

MetLife Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of MET opened at $77.74 on Wednesday. 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 50 day simple moving average of $79.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $78.89. The stock has a market cap of $51.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.87.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $2.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $12.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.64 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 19.88% and a net margin of 5.83%.During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.95 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.5675 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 4th. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.75%.

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.