MetLife, Inc. $MET Shares Sold by Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. reduced its stake in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 10,812 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 468 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in MetLife were worth $870,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MetLife by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 4,240 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $347,000 after purchasing an additional 351 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MetLife by 10.7% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 10,162 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $816,000 after acquiring an additional 984 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of MetLife by 5.1% during the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 112,137 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,003,000 after acquiring an additional 5,413 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MetLife by 15.3% in the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 34,277 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,752,000 after acquiring an additional 4,536 shares during the period. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in MetLife by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 257,991 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $20,714,000 after purchasing an additional 19,597 shares during the period. 94.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on MET shares. Barclays increased their price objective on MetLife from $93.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of MetLife in a report on Friday, August 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of MetLife from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MetLife to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MetLife has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.18.

MetLife Stock Performance

NYSE:MET opened at $78.58 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $80.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $78.18. 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 stock has a market cap of $52.26 billion, a PE ratio of 13.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.86. MetLife, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $65.21 and a fifty-two week high of $89.05.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 EPS 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.28 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 9th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 2.9%. MetLife’s payout ratio is 38.47%.

MetLife Company 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.