US Bancorp DE Cuts Stake in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET)

US Bancorp DE lowered its position in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 7.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 100,648 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 8,167 shares during the quarter. US Bancorp DE’s holdings in MetLife were worth $5,690,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MET. Dodge & Cox lifted its position in MetLife by 0.9% in the first quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 54,069,754 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,132,802,000 after purchasing an additional 486,544 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in MetLife by 7.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 27,540,294 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,595,686,000 after purchasing an additional 1,930,271 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in MetLife by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 11,584,674 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $838,383,000 after purchasing an additional 418,477 shares during the last quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. lifted its position in MetLife by 6.2% in the first quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 7,466,099 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $432,585,000 after purchasing an additional 436,260 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in MetLife in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $444,205,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on MetLife in a research report on Wednesday, October 4th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $71.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup upped their target price on MetLife from $76.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on MetLife from $85.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 6th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on MetLife from $82.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded MetLife from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $58.00 to $72.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MetLife currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $75.45.

MetLife Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE:MET opened at $62.51 on Tuesday. MetLife, Inc. has a one year low of $48.95 and a one year high of $77.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.13 and a quick ratio of 0.13. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $61.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $59.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.98, a PEG ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 1.06.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.99 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $15.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.49 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 19.14% and a net margin of 3.60%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 28.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.21 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that MetLife, Inc. will post 7.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 9th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 8th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.33%. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is presently 76.47%.

MetLife Company Profile

MetLife, Inc, a financial services company, provides insurance, annuities, employee benefits, and asset management services worldwide. It operates through five segments: U.S.; 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.