MetLife, Inc. $MET Shares Bought by AE Wealth Management LLC

AE Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 10.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 59,770 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,890 shares during the quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in MetLife were worth $4,807,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in MetLife during the first quarter worth $336,965,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MetLife during the 1st quarter worth about $312,946,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in MetLife by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 26,488,146 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,126,734,000 after acquiring an additional 1,824,907 shares during the period. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of MetLife in the first quarter valued at $68,030,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of MetLife by 85.0% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,321,881 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $104,270,000 after acquiring an additional 607,333 shares during the last quarter. 94.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MetLife Stock Performance

Shares of MET opened at $76.11 on Monday. MetLife, Inc. has a 52-week low of $65.21 and a 52-week high of $89.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $50.62 billion, a PE ratio of 12.90, a P/E/G ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $80.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.86.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $2.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.30 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $12.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.64 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 19.88% and a net margin of 5.83%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.95 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.5675 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 4th. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.75%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on MET. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on MetLife from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of MetLife in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on MetLife from $96.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of MetLife from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on MetLife from $96.00 to $92.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.18.

MetLife 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.