First Trust Advisors LP Acquires 528,608 Shares of MetLife, Inc. $MET

First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 736.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 600,359 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 528,608 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in MetLife were worth $48,281,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of MetLife by 7.4% in the 1st 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 acquiring an additional 1,824,907 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in MetLife during the second quarter valued at approximately $756,104,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of MetLife by 6.8% in the second quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 9,144,635 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $735,412,000 after purchasing an additional 585,671 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake 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 worth $594,410,000 after buying an additional 259,993 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of MetLife by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,109,423 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $570,816,000 after buying an additional 57,221 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on MET shares. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of MetLife in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on MetLife from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on MetLife from $96.00 to $92.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Wolfe Research raised MetLife to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on MetLife from $92.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, MetLife presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $94.60.

MetLife Stock Down 0.8%

MET stock opened at $78.07 on Tuesday. MetLife, Inc. has a twelve month low of $65.21 and a twelve month high of $88.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company has a market cap of $51.44 billion, a PE ratio of 14.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.76. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $78.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $78.69.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $2.37 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.07. MetLife had a return on equity of 21.00% and a net margin of 5.30%.The firm had revenue of $12.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.95 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 4th will be given a $0.5675 dividend. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 4th. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.75%.

About MetLife

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.