Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. Invests $225,000 in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET)

Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. purchased a new position in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 2,810 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $225,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in MetLife by 109.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,826,658 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $722,727,000 after buying an additional 4,606,748 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of MetLife by 27.3% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 13,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,116,000 after acquiring an additional 2,940 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its stake in MetLife by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 776,244 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $63,559,000 after purchasing an additional 12,723 shares during the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in MetLife in the fourth quarter worth $259,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in MetLife by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 435,847 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $35,687,000 after purchasing an additional 28,848 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on MET. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of MetLife from $98.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on MetLife from $94.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Barclays dropped their price target on MetLife from $95.00 to $88.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on MetLife from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered MetLife from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $94.17.

MetLife Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of MET stock opened at $78.75 on Friday. MetLife, Inc. has a 1 year low of $65.21 and a 1 year high of $89.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $52.86 billion, a PE ratio of 13.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.85. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $76.50 and a two-hundred day moving average of $81.02. 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 (NYSE:MET) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.96 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.00 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $18.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.06 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 20.42% and a net margin of 6.19%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.83 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 EPS for the current year.

MetLife announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, April 30th that permits the company to buyback $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 5.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

MetLife Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 6th will be issued a $0.5675 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 6th. This is a boost from MetLife’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.88%. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.91%.

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.