Townsquare Capital LLC Cuts Position in MetLife, Inc. $MET

Townsquare Capital LLC lowered its position in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 23.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 25,007 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 7,475 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC’s holdings in MetLife were worth $2,060,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Allworth Financial LP raised its position in MetLife by 13.4% in the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 10,893 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $876,000 after purchasing an additional 1,285 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of MetLife by 188.1% during the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 417,515 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $33,577,000 after buying an additional 272,619 shares during the period. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in MetLife during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,608,000. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in MetLife by 256.8% in the 3rd quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 62,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,161,000 after acquiring an additional 45,100 shares during the period. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its position in MetLife by 8.3% in the third quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 393,035 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $32,374,000 after acquiring an additional 30,200 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MET. Barclays set a $90.00 target price on shares of MetLife in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley set a $101.00 price objective on shares of MetLife and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on MetLife from $92.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Evercore ISI set a $97.00 price target on MetLife and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of MetLife in a report on Monday, December 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $95.27.

MetLife Stock Up 2.6%

Shares of MetLife stock opened at $78.22 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $78.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.78. MetLife, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $65.21 and a fifty-two week high of $87.56. The firm has a market cap of $51.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.73, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 0.76.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $2.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.30 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $12.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.64 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 21.00% and a net margin of 5.30%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.95 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.5675 per share. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 3rd. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is 42.75%.

About MetLife

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.