MGO One Seven LLC Purchases New Position in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET)

MGO One Seven LLC bought a new stake in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 7,943 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $650,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in 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 worth $2,019,427,000 after purchasing an additional 6,213,923 shares in the last quarter. Quantessence Capital LLC bought a new position in MetLife in the fourth quarter worth about $662,000. Uniplan Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its holdings in MetLife by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Uniplan Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 53,874 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $4,411,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of MetLife by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 2,314,579 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $189,519,000 after acquiring an additional 74,738 shares during the period. Finally, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. boosted its position in shares of MetLife by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 102,126 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $8,363,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.99% of the company's stock.

MetLife Stock Performance

MET stock traded up $1.70 on Friday, hitting $77.47. The company had a trading volume of 1,240,364 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,398,696. The stock has a market cap of $52.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.98, a P/E/G ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $77.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $81.56. MetLife, Inc. has a 12-month low of $65.21 and a 12-month high of $89.05.

MetLife (NYSE:MET - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.96 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $2.00 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $18.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $18.06 billion. MetLife had a net margin of 6.19% and a return on equity of 20.42%. The firm's revenue was up 15.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.83 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

MetLife Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 6th will be given a $0.5675 dividend. This is a boost from MetLife's previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 6th. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.93%. MetLife's dividend payout ratio is presently 38.02%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on MET. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on MetLife from $109.00 to $94.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of MetLife in a research report on Friday, March 7th. UBS Group upped their price target on MetLife from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on MetLife from $88.00 to $86.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on MetLife from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $92.46.

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.