MetLife (NYSE:MET) Price Target Increased to $95.00 by Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group

MetLife (NYSE:MET) had its price target increased by Jefferies Financial Group from $89.00 to $95.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on MetLife from $86.00 to $85.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 8th. Citigroup upped their price target on MetLife from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of MetLife from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of MetLife from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays assumed coverage on shares of MetLife in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an overweight rating and a $91.00 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $85.23.

MetLife Stock Performance

Shares of MET stock opened at $82.50 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The business has a 50 day moving average of $75.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $72.97. MetLife has a 52 week low of $57.91 and a 52 week high of $82.99. The company has a market cap of $58.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.35, a PEG ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.04.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.13 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $17.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.57 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 21.41% and a net margin of 4.23%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.94 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that MetLife will post 8.68 EPS for the current year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 6th were given a dividend of $0.545 per share. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.64%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 6th. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is 74.91%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 1,974,268 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of MetLife by 22.4% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of MetLife by 5.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,299,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $371,993,000 after buying an additional 269,246 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MetLife by 3.2% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,224,930 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $226,358,000 after buying an additional 100,782 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased 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 buying an additional 108,739 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

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.