Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Has $9.99 Million Holdings in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS decreased its holdings in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 1.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 134,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,394 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in MetLife were worth $9,987,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of MetLife by 91.1% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 461,646 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,042,000 after buying an additional 220,060 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital raised its stake in shares of MetLife by 25.9% during the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 7,315 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $509,000 after acquiring an additional 1,503 shares during the last quarter. Dfpg Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of MetLife by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Dfpg Investments LLC now owns 8,909 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $598,000 after purchasing an additional 289 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in MetLife by 9.9% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,664,012 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $176,304,000 after purchasing an additional 240,564 shares during the period. Finally, Marcum Wealth LLC bought a new position in MetLife during the 4th quarter worth $217,000. Institutional investors own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MET. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on MetLife from $86.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of MetLife from $85.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of MetLife from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of MetLife from $88.00 to $83.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $80.23.

MetLife Stock Performance

NYSE MET traded up $1.24 on Tuesday, hitting $75.67. 2,743,957 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,362,116. The firm has a market capitalization of $53.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.00, a PEG ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.11. The business’s fifty day moving average is $71.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $70.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a current ratio of 0.16. MetLife, Inc. has a 12 month low of $57.91 and a 12 month high of $75.69.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.83. The company had revenue of $17.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.73 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 20.39% and a net margin of 3.50%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.52 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that MetLife, Inc. will post 8.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 6th will be given a $0.545 dividend. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.88%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 6th. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 74.91%.

MetLife declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, May 1st that authorizes the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.