Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA Acquires New Position in MetLife, Inc. $MET

Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA bought a new position in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 40,807 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,361,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MetLife by 13.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,749,521 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,333,418,000 after purchasing an additional 7,578,199 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in MetLife by 5.8% during the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 9,672,023 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $796,685,000 after buying an additional 527,388 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in MetLife during the second quarter worth $756,104,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in MetLife by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,489,588 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $616,896,000 after buying an additional 424,773 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of MetLife by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,624,582 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $532,749,000 after acquiring an additional 162,041 shares during the last quarter. 94.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on MET shares. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of MetLife from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Evercore set a $95.00 price target on shares of MetLife in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on MetLife from $92.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on MetLife from $101.00 to $93.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded MetLife from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $94.18.

MetLife Stock Performance

Shares of MET stock opened at $70.51 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.20 and a current ratio of 0.20. The firm has a market cap of $45.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.00, a P/E/G ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.76. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $76.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $78.58. MetLife, Inc. has a one year low of $65.21 and a one year high of $85.00.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $52.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.43 billion. MetLife had a net margin of 4.38% and a return on equity of 21.81%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.08 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 EPS for the current year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 3rd were paid a $0.5675 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 3rd. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. MetLife’s payout ratio is presently 48.30%.

MetLife Company 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.