MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $94.6364.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MET. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on MetLife from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on MetLife from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. UBS Group decreased their target price on MetLife from $94.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on MetLife from $94.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of MetLife in a research report on Friday, August 22nd.

MetLife Price Performance

MET stock opened at $82.41 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $79.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $78.17. MetLife has a 12-month low of $65.21 and a 12-month high of $89.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The company has a market cap of $54.81 billion, a PE ratio of 13.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.86.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.32 by ($0.30). MetLife had a net margin of 5.83% and a return on equity of 19.88%. The firm had revenue of $17.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.58 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.28 EPS. MetLife’s revenue was down 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that MetLife will post 9.65 EPS for the current year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 5th were issued a $0.5675 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 5th. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.47%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Kathmere Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in MetLife by 88.2% in the second quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 6,328 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $509,000 after purchasing an additional 2,965 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in MetLife by 4.8% in the first quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 422,684 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $33,937,000 after purchasing an additional 19,192 shares during the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management boosted its holdings in MetLife by 52.1% in the first quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 9,355 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $751,000 after purchasing an additional 3,204 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc purchased a new position in MetLife in the first quarter valued at about $255,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in MetLife by 20.7% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 60,785 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,735,000 after purchasing an additional 10,414 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.99% 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.