Triumph Capital Management Purchases Shares of 3,406 MetLife, Inc. $MET

Key Points

• Triumph Capital Management has acquired a stake of 3,406 shares in MetLife, Inc., valued at approximately $274,000, as reported in their recent SEC filing.
• Several institutional investors, including Price T Rowe Associates and Bank of New York Mellon, have increased their holdings in MetLife, contributing to institutional ownership of nearly 95% of the company.
• MetLife's stock has experienced a recent trading drop of 2.1% and reported earnings that missed estimates, with an EPS of $2.02 against a consensus of $2.32.

Triumph Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 3,406 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $274,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in MetLife by 7.4% during the first 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 during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of MetLife by 0.4% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,862,835 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $711,597,000 after acquiring an additional 36,177 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of MetLife by 3.6% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,406,512 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $594,410,000 after acquiring an additional 259,993 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of MetLife by 0.8% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,109,423 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $570,816,000 after acquiring an additional 57,221 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of MetLife by 3.7% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,671,435 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $535,568,000 after acquiring an additional 236,698 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.99% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on MET. UBS Group lowered their price objective on MetLife from $94.00 to $91.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on MetLife from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on MetLife from $98.00 to $94.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Wall Street Zen downgraded MetLife from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on MetLife in a research report on Monday. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $95.00 target price on the stock. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $95.55.

MetLife Trading Down 2.1%

MET opened at $78.74 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $52.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.35, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 0.87. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $78.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $78.21. 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 quick ratio of 0.16 and a current ratio of 0.16.

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

MetLife Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 5th were paid 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 2.9%. MetLife's dividend payout ratio is 38.47%.

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.

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