MetLife, Inc. (MET) To Go Ex-Dividend on May 6th

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be paid a dividend of 0.545 per share by the financial services provider on Tuesday, June 11th. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 6th. This is a boost from MetLife’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52.

MetLife has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.2% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 6 years. MetLife has a dividend payout ratio of 20.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect MetLife to earn $9.96 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 20.9%.

MetLife Price Performance

Shares of MetLife stock opened at $72.72 on Thursday. MetLife has a 52-week low of $48.95 and a 52-week high of $74.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a fifty day moving average of $71.36 and a 200-day moving average of $67.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a current ratio of 0.16.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.95 by ($0.02). MetLife had a net margin of 2.36% and a return on equity of 19.48%. The business had revenue of $18.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.07 billion. Equities research analysts expect that MetLife will post 8.71 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Bill Pappas sold 27,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.27, for a total value of $1,951,290.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 57,768 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,174,893.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Bill Pappas sold 27,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.27, for a total value of $1,951,290.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 57,768 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,174,893.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ramy Tadros sold 4,026 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.90, for a total transaction of $289,469.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 146,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,567,933.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of MetLife from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $70.00 to $80.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of MetLife from $83.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of MetLife from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of MetLife from $74.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of MetLife from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MetLife currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $79.23.

About MetLife

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.