Integrity Alliance LLC. Purchases New Stake in MetLife, Inc. $MET

Key Points

• Integrity Alliance LLC. has established a new position in MetLife, purchasing 7,620 shares valued at approximately $612,000 in the 1st quarter.
• Efforts by multiple large investors, including Price T Rowe Associates, Bank of New York Mellon, and Ameriprise Financial, have seen significant increases in their stakes in MetLife during the same time period.
• MetLife's latest quarterly earnings report indicated an EPS of $2.02, falling short of the consensus estimate of $2.32 and reflecting a 2.7% revenue decrease year-over-year.

Integrity Alliance LLC. bought a new position in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 7,620 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $612,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MET. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in MetLife in the 1st quarter worth about $336,965,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in MetLife in the 1st quarter worth about $312,946,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in MetLife by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 26,488,146 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,126,734,000 after purchasing an additional 1,824,907 shares in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired a new position in MetLife in the 1st quarter worth about $68,030,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in MetLife by 8,789.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 815,889 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $65,508,000 after purchasing an additional 806,711 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.99% of the company's stock.

MetLife Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of MetLife stock traded down $0.36 on Monday, hitting $80.46. 3,083,802 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,625,359. MetLife, Inc. has a one year low of $65.21 and a one year 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 company has a fifty day moving average of $78.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $78.21. The company has a market capitalization of $53.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 0.87.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.32 by ($0.30). The firm had revenue of $17.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.58 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 19.88% and a net margin of 5.83%.The firm's revenue was down 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.28 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 5th were given a $0.5675 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 5th. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. MetLife's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.47%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MET has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $97.00 target price (up previously from $94.00) on shares of MetLife in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on MetLife from $98.00 to $94.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 18th. UBS Group reduced their price target on MetLife from $94.00 to $91.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Wolfe Research set a $95.00 price target on MetLife and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on MetLife from $94.00 to $92.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, MetLife has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $95.55.

About MetLife

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.