Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. Purchases 18,339 Shares of MetLife, Inc. $MET

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 9.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 218,750 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,339 shares during the quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in MetLife were worth $17,268,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of MetLife by 12.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 72,555,335 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,727,518,000 after purchasing an additional 7,805,814 shares in the last quarter. Dodge & Cox boosted its position in shares of MetLife by 0.9% during the third quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 53,659,664 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,419,947,000 after purchasing an additional 477,783 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of MetLife by 1.5% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,572,807 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,035,622,000 after purchasing an additional 180,683 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of MetLife by 22.9% during the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,883,338 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $938,071,000 after purchasing an additional 2,211,315 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of MetLife during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $639,986,000. 94.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen lowered MetLife from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on MetLife from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on MetLife from $87.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on MetLife from $89.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on MetLife from $89.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $95.31.

MetLife Trading Up 1.3%

MetLife stock opened at $82.88 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $76.75 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $76.88. MetLife, Inc. has a 12 month low of $67.33 and a 12 month high of $85.29. The company has a market capitalization of $53.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 0.78.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $14.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.49 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 22.60% and a net margin of 4.66%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.96 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.5925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 12th. This is an increase from MetLife’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.93%.

MetLife Profile

MetLife, Inc is a global provider of insurance, annuities and employee benefit programs. Headquartered in New York City, the company offers a range of risk protection and retirement solutions to individuals, employers and institutional clients. Its core businesses include life insurance, group benefits, retirement products such as annuities, and supplemental health products including dental and disability coverage.

In addition to traditional life and group insurance, MetLife provides workplace benefits and voluntary products distributed through employer-sponsored programs.