MetLife, Inc. $MET Shares Sold by California State Teachers Retirement System

California State Teachers Retirement System reduced its stake in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 2.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 907,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 27,269 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in MetLife were worth $64,179,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in MetLife by 81.3% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 93,574 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,618,000 after purchasing an additional 41,951 shares during the period. Estate Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MetLife during the 1st quarter valued at $1,750,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in shares of MetLife by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 711,501 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $50,317,000 after buying an additional 48,506 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its holdings in shares of MetLife by 21.3% during the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 621,375 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $43,944,000 after buying an additional 109,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SummitTX Capital L.P. purchased a new position in shares of MetLife in the 1st quarter worth $1,855,000. 94.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MET has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Atlantic Securities set a $103.00 target price on MetLife in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on MetLife from $86.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Mizuho raised their price objective on MetLife from $95.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Evercore set a $96.00 price objective on MetLife in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on MetLife from $87.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $100.50.

MetLife Stock Performance

NYSE:MET opened at $97.17 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $88.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $80.02. The company has a current ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. MetLife, Inc. has a twelve month low of $67.33 and a twelve month high of $97.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.83, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.78.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.15. MetLife had a return on equity of 22.60% and a net margin of 4.66%.The firm had revenue of $14.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.96 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 4th will be given a $0.5925 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 4th. This represents a $2.37 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.93%.

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.