Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Purchases Shares of 1,796 MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 1,796 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $126,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp purchased a new position in MetLife during the first quarter valued at approximately $7,012,000. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in MetLife by 54.9% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 371,062 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,983,000 after purchasing an additional 131,538 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its holdings in MetLife by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 2,005,738 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $132,641,000 after purchasing an additional 35,782 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in MetLife during the first quarter valued at approximately $1,053,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MetLife by 2,313.7% in the first quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 104,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,772,000 after buying an additional 100,532 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MET has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of MetLife from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of MetLife from $83.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of MetLife from $99.00 to $96.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of MetLife from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.54.

MetLife Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of MET opened at $76.19 on Friday. MetLife, Inc. has a twelve month low of $57.91 and a twelve month high of $79.34. The company has a market cap of $54.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.18, a P/E/G ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $73.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $72.28.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.13 by $0.15. MetLife had a net margin of 4.23% and a return on equity of 21.41%. The business had revenue of $17.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.94 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 8.67 EPS for the current year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 6th were paid a $0.545 dividend. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.86%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 6th. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.91%.

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.