AustralianSuper Pty Ltd Reduces Stock Holdings in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET)

AustralianSuper Pty Ltd decreased its position in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 3.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,991,698 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 71,909 shares during the quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd’s holdings in MetLife were worth $164,275,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MET. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in MetLife by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,622,348 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,418,612,000 after acquiring an additional 1,974,268 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of MetLife during the first quarter valued at approximately $131,456,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MetLife by 7,837.0% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,129,353 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $79,250,000 after purchasing an additional 1,115,124 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in MetLife by 22.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,396,274 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $378,799,000 after buying an additional 988,666 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. increased its position in MetLife by 29.7% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 2,120,275 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $157,133,000 after purchasing an additional 485,811 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on MET. StockNews.com cut MetLife from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Bank of America lowered their price target on MetLife from $99.00 to $96.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Citigroup upped their price objective on MetLife from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of MetLife in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $97.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MetLife has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $88.46.

MetLife Stock Performance

Shares of MetLife stock traded down $5.07 during trading on Thursday, hitting $78.11. 2,590,867 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,282,249. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $80.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $74.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $54.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.76, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.04. MetLife, Inc. has a 52-week low of $58.89 and a 52-week high of $86.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a current ratio of 0.16.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last posted 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 period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.94 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that MetLife, Inc. will post 8.58 EPS for the current year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 5th will be given a dividend of $0.545 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 5th. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.79%. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 58.76%.

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.