Waterloo Capital L.P. Buys Shares of 2,756 MetLife, Inc. $MET

Waterloo Capital L.P. purchased a new position in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,756 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $222,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in MetLife by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 4,240 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $347,000 after buying an additional 351 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of MetLife by 6.1% during the first quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 42,904 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,445,000 after acquiring an additional 2,449 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in MetLife by 16.5% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 220,540 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $17,707,000 after purchasing an additional 31,207 shares in the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in MetLife by 47.7% in the first quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 30,162 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,422,000 after purchasing an additional 9,742 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in MetLife by 19.3% during the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 530,194 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $42,569,000 after purchasing an additional 85,674 shares in the last quarter. 94.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MET has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group cut their price objective on MetLife from $96.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective 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. Piper Sandler lowered shares of MetLife from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $84.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of MetLife from $93.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded MetLife to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.00.

MetLife Trading Up 0.7%

MetLife stock opened at $75.73 on Wednesday. MetLife, Inc. has a 52 week low of $65.21 and a 52 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. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.84, a P/E/G ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $79.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.87.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $2.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.30 by $0.07. MetLife had a return on equity of 19.88% and a net margin of 5.83%.The company had revenue of $17.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.95 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 EPS for the current 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 paid a dividend of $0.5675 per share. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 4th. MetLife’s payout ratio is 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.