MetLife, Inc. $MET Shares Acquired by Panagora Asset Management Inc.

Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 736.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 238,204 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 209,715 shares during the quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in MetLife were worth $19,156,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of MetLife in the second quarter valued at about $756,104,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in MetLife in the 1st quarter worth approximately $312,946,000. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. acquired a new stake in shares of MetLife in the second quarter worth $178,669,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of MetLife by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 26,488,146 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,126,734,000 after purchasing an additional 1,824,907 shares during the period. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of MetLife during the 1st quarter valued at about $68,030,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on MET. UBS Group cut their price objective on MetLife from $96.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of MetLife from $92.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of MetLife in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Wolfe Research raised MetLife to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of MetLife in a research note on Monday, November 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $94.60.

MetLife Stock Down 0.4%

NYSE MET opened at $76.28 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. MetLife, Inc. has a 52 week low of $65.21 and a 52 week high of $88.59. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $78.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $78.75. The firm has a market cap of $50.26 billion, a PE ratio of 12.93, a P/E/G ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.87.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $2.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.07. MetLife had a net margin of 5.83% and a return on equity of 19.88%. The company had revenue of $17.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.95 EPS. MetLife’s revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 9th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 4th will be issued a $0.5675 dividend. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 4th. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.75%.

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.