Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC Buys 30,468 Shares of MetLife, Inc. $MET

Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 3.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,046,639 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 30,468 shares during the quarter. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC’s holdings in MetLife were worth $82,622,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in MetLife by 12.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 72,555,335 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,727,518,000 after buying an additional 7,805,814 shares during the last quarter. Dodge & Cox raised its position in shares of MetLife by 0.9% during the third quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 53,659,664 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,419,947,000 after acquiring an additional 477,783 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of MetLife by 1.5% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,572,807 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,035,622,000 after acquiring an additional 180,683 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of MetLife by 22.9% during the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,883,338 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $938,071,000 after acquiring an additional 2,211,315 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in MetLife in the fourth quarter valued at about $639,986,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MET has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on MetLife from $89.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 21st. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of MetLife from $98.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Mizuho set a $95.00 price target on shares of MetLife in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of MetLife from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised 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. One research 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. According to MarketBeat, MetLife presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.31.

MetLife Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE:MET opened at $84.61 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. MetLife, Inc. has a 1-year low of $67.33 and a 1-year high of $85.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $54.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.40, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.78. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $77.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $77.01.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $14.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.49 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 22.60% and a net margin of 4.66%.MetLife’s revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.96 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.96 earnings per share for the current year.

MetLife Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th will be paid a $0.5925 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 12th. This is a boost from MetLife’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. MetLife’s payout ratio 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.