OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp Makes New Investment in MetLife, Inc. $MET

OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp purchased a new position in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 31,710 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,683,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in MetLife by 12.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 72,555,335 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,727,518,000 after acquiring an additional 7,805,814 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in MetLife in the 2nd quarter valued at about $4,381,692,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its stake in MetLife by 22.9% during the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,883,338 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $938,071,000 after purchasing an additional 2,211,315 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in MetLife during the fourth quarter worth about $639,986,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of MetLife by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,012,198 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $553,543,000 after purchasing an additional 176,811 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MET has been the subject of several recent research reports. Atlantic Securities set a $103.00 price objective on shares of MetLife in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of MetLife from $101.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of MetLife from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of MetLife from $97.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on MetLife from $95.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MetLife currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $102.21.

MetLife Stock Performance

Shares of MetLife stock opened at $95.91 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $92.75 and a 200-day simple moving average of $82.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.20 and a current ratio of 0.20. MetLife, Inc. has a one year low of $67.33 and a one year high of $100.93. The company has a market cap of $61.71 billion, a PE ratio of 18.37, a P/E/G ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.78.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The financial services provider reported $2.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.13. MetLife had a net margin of 4.57% and a return on equity of 23.39%. The firm had revenue of $13.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.67 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.02 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 4th will be issued a $0.5925 dividend. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 4th. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.40%.

MetLife declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, August 5th that permits the company to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 4.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

MetLife Company 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.