Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Acquires 395 Shares of MetLife, Inc. $MET

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 11.4% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,851 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 395 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in MetLife were worth $310,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in MetLife by 7.4% in the 1st 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 during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its stake in MetLife by 6.8% in the 2nd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 9,144,635 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $735,412,000 after acquiring an additional 585,671 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of MetLife by 0.4% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,862,835 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $711,597,000 after acquiring an additional 36,177 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of MetLife by 3.6% during the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,406,512 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $594,410,000 after acquiring an additional 259,993 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of MetLife by 0.8% in the first 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. 94.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on MET shares. Wolfe Research upgraded MetLife to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective 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. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of MetLife in a report on Friday, August 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler downgraded shares of MetLife from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $84.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, September 19th. One investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.18.

MetLife Trading Up 0.9%

NYSE:MET opened at $79.85 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.53, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.86. MetLife, Inc. has a 52 week low of $65.21 and a 52 week high of $89.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $80.35 and a 200 day moving average of $78.58.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 analysts’ expectations of $18.58 billion. MetLife had a net margin of 5.83% and a return on equity of 19.88%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.28 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 9th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.5675 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 4th. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. MetLife’s payout ratio is presently 38.47%.

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.