MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) Receives $100.50 Average Target Price from Brokerages

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eleven have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $100.50.

Several research firms have recently issued reports on MET. Atlantic Securities set a $103.00 price target on shares of MetLife in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on MetLife from $86.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. UBS Group raised their price target on MetLife from $102.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Evercore set a $96.00 price objective on shares of MetLife in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on MetLife from $96.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MetLife

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MET. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in MetLife in the fourth quarter worth about $639,986,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of MetLife by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 72,555,335 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,727,518,000 after acquiring an additional 7,805,814 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its stake in MetLife by 22.9% during the 4th quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,883,338 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $938,071,000 after purchasing an additional 2,211,315 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of MetLife by 133.5% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,098,649 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $219,136,000 after acquiring an additional 1,771,689 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of MetLife by 105.3% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,305,620 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $271,424,000 after purchasing an additional 1,695,563 shares in the last quarter. 94.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MetLife Stock Performance

NYSE MET opened at $96.25 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.20 and a current ratio of 0.20. The company has a market capitalization of $61.93 billion, a PE ratio of 18.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $88.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $80.28. MetLife has a 52-week low of $67.33 and a 52-week high of $97.80.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.15. The business 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 revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.96 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that MetLife will post 9.89 EPS for the current year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 8th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.5925 per share. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 4th. MetLife’s payout ratio is currently 45.93%.

About MetLife

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.