Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC Buys 233 Shares of MetLife, Inc. $MET

Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 14.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,813 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the period. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in MetLife were worth $146,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MET. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of MetLife during the first quarter worth $336,965,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in MetLife in the first quarter valued at $312,946,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in 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 during the period. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired a new position in MetLife in the first quarter valued at $68,030,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 607,333 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

MetLife Trading Up 0.7%

NYSE:MET opened at $78.71 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.16 and a quick ratio of 0.16. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $80.37 and a 200-day moving average of $78.31. The company has a market cap of $52.34 billion, a PE ratio of 13.34, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.86. MetLife, Inc. has a one year low of $65.21 and a one year high of $89.05.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.32 by ($0.30). The business had revenue of $17.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.58 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 19.88% and a net margin of 5.83%.The company’s revenue was down 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.28 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 9th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 4th will be given a $0.5675 dividend. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 4th. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.47%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MET has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of MetLife from $93.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MetLife to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of MetLife from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of MetLife in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.18.

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.