Ritholtz Wealth Management Increases Stake in MetLife, Inc. $MET

Key Points

• Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its stake in MetLife by 99% in Q2, holding 18,620 shares valued at approximately $1.5 million.
• Several institutional investors made significant moves in MetLife stock, with Diamond Hill Capital acquiring around $337 million worth in Q1.
• MetLife announced a quarterly dividend payment of $0.5675 per share, yielding 2.9%, which will be paid on December 9th to shareholders of record.

Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its position in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET - Free Report) by 99.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 18,620 shares of the financial services provider's stock after buying an additional 9,265 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management's holdings in MetLife were worth $1,497,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in MET. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of MetLife in the 1st quarter valued at about $336,965,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of MetLife in the 1st quarter valued at about $312,946,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $2,126,734,000 after purchasing an additional 1,824,907 shares in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new position in shares of MetLife in the 1st quarter valued at about $68,030,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of MetLife by 85.0% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,321,881 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $104,270,000 after purchasing an additional 607,333 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 recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group cut their price target 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of MetLife from $94.00 to $92.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 11th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MetLife to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of MetLife in a report on Friday, August 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $95.18.

MetLife Price Performance

MetLife stock opened at $78.55 on Friday. MetLife, Inc. has a 12-month low of $65.21 and a 12-month high of $89.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.31, a P/E/G ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.86. The firm's 50-day moving average is $80.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $78.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.16 and a quick ratio of 0.16.

MetLife (NYSE:MET - Get Free Report) last released 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). MetLife had a return on equity of 19.88% and a net margin of 5.83%.The firm had revenue of $17.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.58 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.28 earnings per share. MetLife's revenue for the quarter was down 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 9th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.5675 per share. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 4th. MetLife's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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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