New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 23,000 Shares of MetLife, Inc. $MET

New York State Common Retirement Fund reduced its stake in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 727,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 23,000 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in MetLife were worth $58,470,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Allworth Financial LP grew its position in MetLife by 13.4% in the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 10,893 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $876,000 after acquiring an additional 1,285 shares during the period. Kathmere Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in MetLife by 88.2% in the second quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 6,328 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $509,000 after acquiring an additional 2,965 shares during the last quarter. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MetLife during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,608,000. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI bought a new position in shares of MetLife in the 1st quarter worth $12,060,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of MetLife by 13.4% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,050,921 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $84,378,000 after acquiring an additional 123,947 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

MetLife Price Performance

MetLife stock opened at $76.95 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $50.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.04, a P/E/G ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.16 and a quick ratio of 0.16. MetLife, Inc. has a one year low of $65.21 and a one year high of $88.68. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $79.02 and its 200 day moving average is $78.79.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $2.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $12.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.64 billion. MetLife had a net margin of 5.83% and a return on equity of 19.88%. MetLife’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.95 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 EPS for the current year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 4th. MetLife’s payout ratio is presently 42.75%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on MET shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on MetLife from $93.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Piper Sandler downgraded shares of MetLife from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $84.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MetLife to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of MetLife in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on MetLife from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $94.60.

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.