Bank & Trust Co Purchases Shares of 550 MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET)

Bank & Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 550 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $39,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in MetLife by 3.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,622,348 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,418,612,000 after acquiring an additional 1,974,268 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in MetLife in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $558,460,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in MetLife by 20.9% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,053,851 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $268,090,000 after buying an additional 700,788 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in MetLife by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,878,238 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $256,468,000 after buying an additional 104,116 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of MetLife by 4.1% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,772,751 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $205,544,000 after acquiring an additional 108,739 shares in the last quarter. 89.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MET. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of MetLife from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Argus increased their target price on MetLife from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. Bank of America reduced their price target on MetLife from $99.00 to $96.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of MetLife from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of MetLife from $83.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.77.

MetLife Stock Performance

Shares of MET traded up $0.62 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $68.58. The stock had a trading volume of 4,156,121 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,374,176. MetLife, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $57.91 and a fifty-two week high of $79.34. The company has a quick ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The company has a market cap of $48.77 billion, a PE ratio of 23.35, a PEG ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.11. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $71.85 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $71.25.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last released its earnings results 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. MetLife had a net margin of 4.23% and a return on equity of 21.41%. The firm had revenue of $17.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.94 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 8.62 earnings per share for the current year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.545 per share. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.18%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 6th. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.91%.

MetLife declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, May 1st that allows the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.