Board of the Pension Protection Fund Acquires Shares of 10,300 MetLife, Inc. $MET

Key Points

• The Pension Protection Fund acquired 10,300 shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), valued at approximately $828,000, indicating growing institutional interest in the company.
• Several brokerages updated their ratings and price targets for MetLife, with JPMorgan increasing its target to $95.00 while others set ranges between $91.00 and $92.00.
• MetLife announced a quarterly dividend of $0.5675, with a yield of 2.8%, scheduled to be paid on December 9th, reflecting its commitment to returning value to shareholders.

Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 10,300 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $828,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Kathmere Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of MetLife by 88.2% in the 2nd quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 6,328 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $509,000 after buying an additional 2,965 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of MetLife by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 422,684 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $33,937,000 after buying an additional 19,192 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its position in MetLife by 52.1% in the first quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 9,355 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $751,000 after purchasing an additional 3,204 shares during the period. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc acquired a new stake in MetLife in the first quarter worth about $255,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in MetLife by 20.7% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 60,785 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $4,735,000 after purchasing an additional 10,414 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.99% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on MET. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of MetLife from $94.00 to $92.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 11th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of MetLife from $94.00 to $91.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of MetLife in a report on Friday, August 22nd. 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 assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MetLife currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $95.18.

MetLife Trading Down 2.6%

NYSE:MET opened at $79.88 on Friday. MetLife, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $65.21 and a fifty-two week 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 stock has a market capitalization of $53.12 billion, a PE ratio of 13.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.86. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $79.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $78.12.

MetLife (NYSE:MET - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $2.32 by ($0.30). MetLife had a net margin of 5.83% and a return on equity of 19.88%. The company had revenue of $17.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.58 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.28 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 4th will be given a $0.5675 dividend. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 4th. MetLife's payout ratio is currently 38.47%.

MetLife 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.

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