MetLife (NYSE:MET) Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of MetLife (NYSE:MET) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Tuesday morning.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on MET. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on MetLife from $83.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $85.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of MetLife from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of MetLife from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Argus raised their price target on MetLife from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, MetLife presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $84.54.

MetLife Price Performance

Shares of MetLife stock opened at $76.19 on Tuesday. MetLife has a twelve month low of $57.91 and a twelve month high of $79.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a current ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market cap of $54.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $73.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $72.28.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.13 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $17.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.57 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 21.41% and a net margin of 4.23%. The company’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.94 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that MetLife will post 8.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 6th were given a dividend of $0.545 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 6th. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.86%. MetLife’s payout ratio is 74.91%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MetLife

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of MetLife during the second quarter worth approximately $241,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of MetLife during the second quarter worth approximately $6,377,000. Brown Financial Advisors bought a new stake in shares of MetLife during the second quarter worth approximately $707,000. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of MetLife during the second quarter worth approximately $585,000. Finally, Truist Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of MetLife by 13.2% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,938,609 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $136,071,000 after buying an additional 226,784 shares during the last quarter. 89.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About MetLife

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.