Virtue Capital Management LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in MetLife, Inc. $MET

Virtue Capital Management LLC cut its holdings in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 15.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,313 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 805 shares during the period. Virtue Capital Management LLC’s holdings in MetLife were worth $347,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MET. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MetLife in the first quarter valued at approximately $312,946,000. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. acquired a new stake in MetLife during the 2nd quarter valued at $178,669,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in MetLife by 7.4% during the first 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 buying an additional 1,824,907 shares in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired a new position in shares of MetLife in the first quarter worth $68,030,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of MetLife by 85.0% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,321,881 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $104,270,000 after acquiring an additional 607,333 shares in the last quarter. 94.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MetLife Stock Performance

Shares of MET stock opened at $76.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a current ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $50.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.87. MetLife, Inc. has a one year low of $65.21 and a one year high of $88.68. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $79.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.81.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $2.37 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 19.88% and a net margin of 5.83%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.95 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 EPS for the current year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The company 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 4th. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler cut MetLife from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $84.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of MetLife in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of MetLife from $96.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of MetLife from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded MetLife to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $94.60.

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.