Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Sells 137,655 Shares of MetLife, Inc. $MET

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 49.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 142,076 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 137,655 shares during the quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC’s holdings in MetLife were worth $11,216,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Trustmark Bank Trust Department boosted its position in MetLife by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Trustmark Bank Trust Department now owns 2,870 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $236,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of MetLife by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC now owns 26,953 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,128,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the period. CreativeOne Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of MetLife by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 10,156 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $802,000 after purchasing an additional 135 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH grew its stake in MetLife by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH now owns 30,431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,402,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the period. Finally, Bridgewater Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in MetLife by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. now owns 4,113 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $315,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. 94.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MET has been the subject of several recent research reports. Evercore set a $96.00 price objective on MetLife in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of MetLife from $89.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of MetLife from $103.00 to $99.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of MetLife from $98.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of MetLife from $87.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MetLife presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.31.

MetLife Trading Down 0.1%

NYSE MET opened at $85.76 on Friday. MetLife, Inc. has a 12 month low of $67.33 and a 12 month high of $89.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $80.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $77.71. The stock has a market cap of $55.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.62, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.78.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $14.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.49 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 22.60% and a net margin of 4.66%.MetLife’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.96 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th were issued a $0.5925 dividend. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. This is a boost from MetLife’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 12th. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.93%.

Trending Headlines about MetLife

Here are the key news stories impacting MetLife this week:

• Neutral Sentiment: World Cup coverage is keeping MetLife Stadium in the headlines, including reports that the final will be played there and that the venue is drawing unusually high attention from fans and media. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: There are also logistics-related stories about congestion and commuter concerns around MetLife Stadium during World Cup events, which may matter more to event operations than to MetLife’s core financial performance. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Several players and coaches, including France’s Adrien Rabiot and Didier Deschamps, publicly criticized the MetLife Stadium pitch as hard and poor-quality, raising concerns about the venue’s surface and potentially creating reputational noise around the stadium. Article Title

MetLife Profile

MetLife, Inc is a global provider of insurance, annuities and employee benefit programs. Headquartered in New York City, the company offers a range of risk protection and retirement solutions to individuals, employers and institutional clients. Its core businesses include life insurance, group benefits, retirement products such as annuities, and supplemental health products including dental and disability coverage.

In addition to traditional life and group insurance, MetLife provides workplace benefits and voluntary products distributed through employer-sponsored programs.