Bleakley Financial Group LLC Sells 468 Shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET)

Bleakley Financial Group LLC reduced its holdings in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 29,626 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 468 shares during the quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC’s holdings in MetLife were worth $2,444,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MetLife by 3.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,622,348 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,418,612,000 after purchasing an additional 1,974,268 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of MetLife by 22.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,396,274 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $378,799,000 after buying an additional 988,666 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in MetLife by 5.4% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,299,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $371,993,000 after buying an additional 269,246 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in MetLife by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,224,930 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $226,358,000 after acquiring an additional 100,782 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of MetLife by 4.1% during the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,772,751 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $205,544,000 after acquiring an additional 108,739 shares during the period. 89.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on MET shares. Piper Sandler increased their target price on MetLife from $85.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Bank of America dropped their target price on MetLife from $99.00 to $96.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of MetLife from $89.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MetLife presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $88.46.

MetLife Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of MET opened at $85.33 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $78.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $74.12. The company has a market cap of $60.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.32, a P/E/G ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 1.04. MetLife, Inc. has a one year low of $57.91 and a one year high of $86.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.16 and a quick ratio of 0.16.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.13 by $0.15. MetLife had a return on equity of 21.41% and a net margin of 4.23%. The business had revenue of $17.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.94 EPS. MetLife’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that MetLife, Inc. will post 8.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.545 per share. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 5th. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.91%.

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.