Heartland Bank & Trust Co Invests $516,000 in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET)

Heartland Bank & Trust Co bought a new position in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 6,426 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $516,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MET. Norges Bank bought a new stake in MetLife during the fourth quarter worth $730,716,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in MetLife by 33.7% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 24,663,239 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,019,427,000 after acquiring an additional 6,213,923 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in MetLife by 109.2% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,826,658 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $722,727,000 after acquiring an additional 4,606,748 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in MetLife by 43.7% during the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 5,663,177 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $463,701,000 after acquiring an additional 1,723,461 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in MetLife by 15.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,052,202 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $577,434,000 after acquiring an additional 958,458 shares in the last quarter. 94.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MET. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of MetLife from $88.00 to $86.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of MetLife from $98.00 to $95.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of MetLife from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of MetLife from $94.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of MetLife from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $94.17.

MetLife Trading Up 0.6%

NYSE:MET traded up $0.48 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $79.69. 2,383,659 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,377,119. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $77.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $80.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. MetLife, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $65.21 and a fifty-two week high of $89.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $53.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.96, a PEG ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.86.

MetLife (NYSE:MET - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.96 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.00 by ($0.04). MetLife had a return on equity of 20.89% and a net margin of 6.08%. The business had revenue of $18.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.06 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.83 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 15.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current year.

MetLife Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 6th were given a dividend of $0.5675 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 6th. This is an increase from MetLife's previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.85%. MetLife's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.91%.

MetLife declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, April 30th that permits the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to reacquire up to 5.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.