MetLife, Inc. $MET Holdings Cut by Freemont Management S.A.

Freemont Management S.A. reduced its stake in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 88.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 27,100 shares during the period. Freemont Management S.A.’s holdings in MetLife were worth $305,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MET. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in MetLife during the second quarter valued at $756,104,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of MetLife by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,624,582 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $532,749,000 after purchasing an additional 162,041 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of MetLife by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,512,620 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $367,643,000 after buying an additional 86,519 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its stake in shares of MetLife by 40.2% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 4,507,362 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $361,265,000 after buying an additional 1,292,107 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its holdings in MetLife by 4.9% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,316,279 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $273,162,000 after buying an additional 154,889 shares during the last quarter. 94.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on MET shares. Evercore set a $97.00 target price on shares of MetLife and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley set a $101.00 price objective on shares of MetLife and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Barclays set a $90.00 price objective on shares of MetLife in a report on Thursday, January 8th. UBS Group raised their target price on MetLife from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $95.00 price target on MetLife in a research note on Tuesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.42.

MetLife Stock Performance

Shares of MET opened at $77.28 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $50.92 billion, a PE ratio of 16.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.20 and a quick ratio of 0.18. MetLife, Inc. has a one year low of $65.21 and a one year high of $87.39. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $78.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $78.80.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $18.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.43 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 21.81% and a net margin of 4.38%.The firm’s revenue was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.08 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.5675 per share. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 3rd. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.30%.

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.