MV Capital Management Inc. Buys New Position in MetLife, Inc. $MET

MV Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 6,165 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $487,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in MetLife by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,630,165 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $366,524,000 after acquiring an additional 117,545 shares during the period. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ grew its stake in shares of MetLife by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ now owns 187,358 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $15,433,000 after purchasing an additional 11,469 shares during the last quarter. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MetLife during the third quarter worth approximately $8,091,000. Strs Ohio lifted its holdings in shares of MetLife by 16.6% during the fourth quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 326,091 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,742,000 after purchasing an additional 46,469 shares during the period. Finally, Korea Investment CORP grew its position in MetLife by 12.1% in the 3rd quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 666,354 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $54,888,000 after buying an additional 71,781 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

MetLife News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting MetLife this week:

• Neutral Sentiment: World Cup coverage is keeping MetLife Stadium in the headlines, including reports that the final will be played there and that the venue is drawing unusually high attention from fans and media. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: There are also logistics-related stories about congestion and commuter concerns around MetLife Stadium during World Cup events, which may matter more to event operations than to MetLife’s core financial performance. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Several players and coaches, including France’s Adrien Rabiot and Didier Deschamps, publicly criticized the MetLife Stadium pitch as hard and poor-quality, raising concerns about the venue’s surface and potentially creating reputational noise around the stadium. Article Title

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of MetLife from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of MetLife from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Monday. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of MetLife from $103.00 to $99.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of MetLife from $89.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of MetLife from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MetLife has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.31.

MetLife Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of MET stock opened at $85.76 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $80.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $77.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $55.18 billion, a PE ratio of 16.62, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 0.20 and a quick ratio of 0.20. MetLife, Inc. has a 1-year low of $67.33 and a 1-year high of $89.62.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.15. MetLife had a net margin of 4.66% and a return on equity of 22.60%. The company had revenue of $14.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.96 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th were given a dividend of $0.5925 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 12th. This is an increase from MetLife’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.93%.

MetLife Profile

MetLife, Inc is a global provider of insurance, annuities and employee benefit programs. Headquartered in New York City, the company offers a range of risk protection and retirement solutions to individuals, employers and institutional clients. Its core businesses include life insurance, group benefits, retirement products such as annuities, and supplemental health products including dental and disability coverage.

In addition to traditional life and group insurance, MetLife provides workplace benefits and voluntary products distributed through employer-sponsored programs.