Hartford Investment Management Co. Sells 950 Shares of MetLife, Inc. $MET

Hartford Investment Management Co. lessened its stake in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 2.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 37,894 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 950 shares during the quarter. Hartford Investment Management Co.’s holdings in MetLife were worth $3,047,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MET. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of MetLife by 7.4% in the first 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 purchasing an additional 1,824,907 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of MetLife by 0.4% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,862,835 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $711,597,000 after purchasing an additional 36,177 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of MetLife by 3.6% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,406,512 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $594,410,000 after purchasing an additional 259,993 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of MetLife by 0.8% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,109,423 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $570,816,000 after purchasing an additional 57,221 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of MetLife by 3.7% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,671,435 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $535,568,000 after purchasing an additional 236,698 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MET. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of MetLife from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of MetLife from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of MetLife from $94.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $97.00 target price (up previously from $94.00) on shares of MetLife in a report on Thursday, July 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MetLife currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $94.64.

MetLife Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MET opened at $81.61 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $78.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $78.14. MetLife, Inc. has a 1-year low of $65.21 and a 1-year high of $89.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $54.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.83, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

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

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 9th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 5th were issued a dividend of $0.5675 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 5th. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.8%. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.47%.

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.