Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co Buys 24,800 Shares of MetLife, Inc. $MET

Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co raised its stake in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 21.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 137,956 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 24,800 shares during the period. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s holdings in MetLife were worth $11,363,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of MetLife during the second quarter valued at about $756,104,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in MetLife by 2.5% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,624,582 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $532,749,000 after buying an additional 162,041 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in MetLife by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,512,620 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $367,643,000 after acquiring an additional 86,519 shares during the last quarter. Amundi increased its stake in MetLife by 40.2% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 4,507,362 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $361,265,000 after acquiring an additional 1,292,107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of MetLife by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,316,279 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $273,162,000 after acquiring an additional 154,889 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MET has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays set a $90.00 target price on shares of MetLife in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of MetLife from $92.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley set a $101.00 target price on shares of MetLife and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Mizuho set a $100.00 price objective on MetLife in a research note on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on MetLife from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MetLife presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.42.

MetLife Price Performance

Shares of MET stock opened at $77.26 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $78.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.80. MetLife, Inc. has a 52-week low of $65.21 and a 52-week high of $87.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.18 and a current ratio of 0.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $50.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.44, a P/E/G ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.77.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $18.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.43 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 21.81% and a net margin of 4.38%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.08 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 3rd will be paid a $0.5675 dividend. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 3rd. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.30%.

MetLife Company Profile

MetLife, Inc is a global provider of insurance, annuities and employee benefit programs. Headquartered in New York City, the company offers a range of risk protection and retirement solutions to individuals, employers and institutional clients. Its core businesses include life insurance, group benefits, retirement products such as annuities, and supplemental health products including dental and disability coverage.

In addition to traditional life and group insurance, MetLife provides workplace benefits and voluntary products distributed through employer-sponsored programs.