Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Has $961,000 Stock Holdings in MetLife, Inc. $MET

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lowered its stake in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 8.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 11,954 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,065 shares during the quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in MetLife were worth $961,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MET. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of MetLife by 7.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 26,488,146 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,126,734,000 after buying an additional 1,824,907 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of MetLife by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,862,835 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $711,597,000 after acquiring an additional 36,177 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of MetLife by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,406,512 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $594,410,000 after purchasing an additional 259,993 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of MetLife by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,109,423 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $570,816,000 after purchasing an additional 57,221 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in MetLife by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,671,435 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $535,568,000 after purchasing an additional 236,698 shares during the last quarter. 94.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Wolfe Research raised MetLife to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. UBS Group decreased their target price on MetLife from $94.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on MetLife from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of MetLife from $94.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of MetLife from $98.00 to $94.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $94.64.

MetLife Stock Up 1.3%

MET opened at $82.41 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 stock has a fifty day moving average of $79.10 and a 200-day moving average of $78.17. MetLife, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $65.21 and a fifty-two week high of $89.05. The company has a market capitalization of $54.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.97, a P/E/G ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.86.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.32 by ($0.30). The business had revenue of $17.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.58 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 19.88% and a net margin of 5.83%.MetLife’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.28 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 EPS for the current year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 5th were given a dividend of $0.5675 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 5th. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.47%.

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.