MetLife (NYSE:MET) Hits New 1-Year High at $79.63

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $79.63 and last traded at $79.58, with a volume of 1639365 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $78.28.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MET. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of MetLife from $83.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on MetLife from $86.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 8th. StockNews.com downgraded MetLife from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Barclays initiated coverage on MetLife in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $91.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Bank of America cut their price target on MetLife from $99.00 to $96.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MetLife presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.54.

MetLife Trading Down 0.5 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.16 and a quick ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $57.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.04. The business’s 50-day moving average is $74.51 and its 200 day moving average is $72.54.

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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.57 billion. MetLife had a net margin of 4.23% and a return on equity of 21.41%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.94 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that MetLife, Inc. will post 8.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 6th were issued a dividend of $0.545 per share. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 6th. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 74.91%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MET. Verity & Verity LLC increased its holdings in MetLife by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 211,732 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $14,861,000 after buying an additional 2,593 shares during the period. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in MetLife in the second quarter valued at approximately $241,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in MetLife in the second quarter valued at approximately $6,377,000. Brown Financial Advisors acquired a new position in MetLife during the second quarter valued at approximately $707,000. Finally, Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in MetLife during the second quarter worth $585,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

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.