MetLife (NYSE:MET) Given New $83.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

MetLife (NYSE:MET) had its price target raised by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $82.00 to $83.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price indicates a potential upside of 14.58% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on MET. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on MetLife from $88.00 to $83.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on MetLife from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on MetLife from $85.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Argus increased their price objective on MetLife from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded MetLife from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MetLife presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $80.23.

MetLife Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE:MET opened at $72.44 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $51.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.89, a P/E/G ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $71.09 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $70.38. MetLife has a 1 year low of $57.70 and a 1 year high of $74.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.16 and a quick ratio of 0.16.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.83. The firm had revenue of $17.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.73 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 20.39% and a net margin of 3.50%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.52 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that MetLife will post 8.62 EPS for the current year.

MetLife announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, May 1st that allows the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of MetLife

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in MetLife by 678.4% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 287,311 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $19,000,000 after acquiring an additional 250,402 shares in the last quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp bought a new stake in MetLife during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $7,012,000. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd boosted its position in MetLife by 19.2% during the 4th quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 1,824,596 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $120,661,000 after acquiring an additional 293,925 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in MetLife by 9.9% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,664,012 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $176,304,000 after acquiring an additional 240,564 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH boosted its position in MetLife by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 742,302 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $49,088,000 after acquiring an additional 86,091 shares in the last quarter. 89.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

MetLife Company Profile

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.