Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC Increases Position in MetLife, Inc. $MET

Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lifted its stake in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 18.8% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 9,785 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,548 shares during the quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC’s holdings in MetLife were worth $787,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Allworth Financial LP lifted its position in MetLife by 13.4% during the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 10,893 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $876,000 after acquiring an additional 1,285 shares during the last quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of MetLife by 88.2% during the second quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 6,328 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $509,000 after purchasing an additional 2,965 shares in the last quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI purchased a new stake in shares of MetLife during the 1st quarter valued at $12,060,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of MetLife by 13.4% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,050,921 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $84,378,000 after purchasing an additional 123,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP grew its stake in MetLife by 136.0% during the 1st quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 14,721 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,182,000 after buying an additional 8,482 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on MET. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on MetLife from $96.00 to $92.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Wolfe Research raised shares of MetLife to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted 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 restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of MetLife in a research note on Monday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of MetLife from $92.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. One equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.00.

MetLife Stock Performance

MET opened at $75.41 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $79.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $78.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.68 billion, a PE ratio of 12.78, a P/E/G ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. MetLife, Inc. has a 12-month low of $65.21 and a 12-month high of $89.05.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $2.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.30 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $17.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.64 billion. MetLife had a net margin of 5.83% and a return on equity of 19.88%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.95 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 EPS for the current year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 9th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 4th will be issued a $0.5675 dividend. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a dividend 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.