MetLife (NYSE:MET) Initiates Stock Buyback Plan

MetLife (NYSE:MET) declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, April 30th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to buy up to 5.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

MetLife Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MET opened at $77.84 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $77.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $81.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a current ratio of 0.16. MetLife has a 52 week low of $65.21 and a 52 week high of $89.05. The firm has a market cap of $53.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.04, a P/E/G ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.89.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.96 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.00 by ($0.04). MetLife had a net margin of 6.19% and a return on equity of 20.42%. The company had revenue of $18.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.06 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.83 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that MetLife will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 6th will be given a dividend of $0.5675 per share. This is a positive change from MetLife’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 6th. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.92%. MetLife’s payout ratio is currently 38.02%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MET has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of MetLife from $97.00 to $91.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. UBS Group raised their price objective on MetLife from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on MetLife from $98.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of MetLife from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of MetLife from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $92.46.

About MetLife

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.