Tredje AP fonden Buys 40,000 Shares of MetLife, Inc. $MET

Tredje AP fonden lifted its position in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 9.6% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 455,689 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 40,000 shares during the period. Tredje AP fonden’s holdings in MetLife were worth $37,535,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MET. Quaker Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of MetLife by 198.2% during the second quarter. Quaker Wealth Management LLC now owns 333 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 672 shares in the last quarter. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in MetLife during the 2nd quarter worth $35,000. Salomon & Ludwin LLC lifted its holdings in MetLife by 95.4% during the third quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 422 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 206 shares in the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC grew its stake in MetLife by 564.1% in the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 425 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 361 shares during the period. Finally, MTM Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of MetLife in the second quarter worth about $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MET. Mizuho set a $100.00 price objective on MetLife in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of MetLife from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of MetLife from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of MetLife from $92.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of MetLife from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.27.

MetLife Stock Up 1.2%

MetLife stock opened at $79.05 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. MetLife, Inc. has a 1-year low of $65.21 and a 1-year high of $87.39. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $78.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $78.90. The company has a market cap of $52.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.77.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $52.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $31.43 billion. MetLife had a net margin of 4.38% and a return on equity of 21.81%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.08 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.5675 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 3rd. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is 48.30%.

MetLife Profile

MetLife, Inc is a global provider of insurance, annuities and employee benefit programs. Headquartered in New York City, the company offers a range of risk protection and retirement solutions to individuals, employers and institutional clients. Its core businesses include life insurance, group benefits, retirement products such as annuities, and supplemental health products including dental and disability coverage.

In addition to traditional life and group insurance, MetLife provides workplace benefits and voluntary products distributed through employer-sponsored programs.