111 Capital Buys 7,688 Shares of MetLife, Inc. $MET

111 Capital increased its stake in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 128.2% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 13,683 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,688 shares during the period. 111 Capital’s holdings in MetLife were worth $1,100,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MET. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MetLife by 9.0% during the fourth 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. Vest Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MetLife by 73.5% during the first quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 27,161 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,181,000 after purchasing an additional 11,507 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of MetLife by 8.9% during the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 7,586 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $609,000 after purchasing an additional 619 shares during the last quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MetLife by 4.4% during the first quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 56,936 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,571,000 after purchasing an additional 2,423 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MetLife by 5.7% during the first quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 39,409 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,164,000 after purchasing an additional 2,119 shares during the last quarter. 94.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MetLife Trading Up 1.3%

NYSE:MET opened at $82.41 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. MetLife, Inc. has a 12 month low of $65.21 and a 12 month high of $89.05. The company has a market cap of $54.81 billion, a PE ratio of 13.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $79.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $78.17.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.32 by ($0.30). MetLife had a return on equity of 19.88% and a net margin of 5.83%.The company had revenue of $17.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.58 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.28 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 9th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 5th were given a $0.5675 dividend. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 5th. MetLife’s payout ratio is 38.47%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of MetLife in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. Wolfe Research raised shares of MetLife to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of MetLife from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of MetLife in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $94.64.

MetLife 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.