ABN Amro Investment Solutions Sells 76,175 Shares of MetLife, Inc. $MET

ABN Amro Investment Solutions reduced its stake in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 32.9% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 155,398 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 76,175 shares during the quarter. ABN Amro Investment Solutions’ holdings in MetLife were worth $10,990,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of MetLife during the 4th quarter valued at about $639,986,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in MetLife by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 72,555,335 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,727,518,000 after buying an additional 7,805,814 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its stake in MetLife by 22.9% in the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,883,338 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $938,071,000 after buying an additional 2,211,315 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in MetLife by 105.3% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,305,620 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $271,424,000 after buying an additional 1,695,563 shares during the period. Finally, Man Group plc boosted its position in MetLife by 325.5% during the 2nd quarter. Man Group plc now owns 1,344,551 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $108,129,000 after acquiring an additional 1,028,554 shares in the last quarter. 94.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

MetLife Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MET opened at $93.27 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $86.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $79.36. MetLife, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $67.33 and a fifty-two week high of $94.86. The company has a market capitalization of $60.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.08, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.20 and a current ratio of 0.20.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $14.18 billion for 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%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.96 EPS. Analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 8th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 4th will be issued a $0.5925 dividend. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 4th. MetLife’s payout ratio is 45.93%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on MET. Piper Sandler upped their target price on MetLife from $86.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Atlantic Securities set a $103.00 target price on MetLife in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Wall Street Zen lowered MetLife from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on MetLife from $93.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on MetLife from $95.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $100.50.

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.