MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) Holdings Lifted by Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its stake in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET - Free Report) by 15.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 34,277 shares of the financial services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 4,536 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.'s holdings in MetLife were worth $2,752,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MET. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of MetLife in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $730,716,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of MetLife by 33.7% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 24,663,239 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,019,427,000 after purchasing an additional 6,213,923 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in shares of MetLife by 43.7% in the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 5,663,177 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $463,701,000 after purchasing an additional 1,723,461 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of MetLife by 15.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,052,202 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $577,434,000 after purchasing an additional 958,458 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of MetLife by 8,789.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 815,889 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $65,508,000 after purchasing an additional 806,711 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.99% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on MET shares. Piper Sandler upped their target price on MetLife from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on MetLife from $91.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on MetLife from $88.00 to $86.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Wall Street Zen lowered MetLife from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on MetLife from $95.00 to $88.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MetLife presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $94.17.

MetLife Stock Performance

NYSE MET traded up $0.44 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $80.40. The company had a trading volume of 3,643,597 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,384,306. MetLife, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $65.21 and a fifty-two week high of $89.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $77.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $80.17. The firm has a market cap of $53.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.86.

MetLife (NYSE:MET - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.96 earnings per share (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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.06 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.83 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 15.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 EPS for the current year.

MetLife declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, April 30th that allows the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to buy up to 5.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

MetLife Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 6th were paid a $0.5675 dividend. This is a boost from MetLife's previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 6th. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.82%. MetLife's dividend payout ratio is presently 36.91%.

MetLife Company 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.