Truist Financial Corp Sells 220,911 Shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET)

Truist Financial Corp lowered its stake in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 11.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,715,392 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 220,911 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp owned 0.23% of MetLife worth $113,439,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Eley Financial Management Inc lifted its position in MetLife by 1.0% in the third quarter. Eley Financial Management Inc now owns 16,348 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,028,000 after buying an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in MetLife by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC now owns 4,367 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $289,000 after buying an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. KLCM Advisors Inc. lifted its position in MetLife by 3.6% in the third quarter. KLCM Advisors Inc. now owns 4,920 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $310,000 after buying an additional 171 shares during the last quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC lifted its position in MetLife by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC now owns 61,738 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,083,000 after buying an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RFG Advisory LLC lifted its position in MetLife by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 5,924 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $392,000 after buying an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on MET shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on MetLife from $83.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. UBS Group decreased their target price on MetLife from $87.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on MetLife from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on MetLife from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MetLife from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $70.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $79.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MetLife news, EVP Bill Pappas sold 27,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 18th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $4,174,893.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other MetLife news, EVP Bill Pappas sold 27,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 18th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $4,174,893.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Ramy Tadros sold 4,026 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.90, for a total value of $289,469.40. Following the completion of the sale, 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. Corporate insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

MetLife Stock Down 2.1 %

NYSE MET traded down $1.48 during trading on Friday, hitting $70.42. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,650,572 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,506,510. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 0.16 and a quick ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $50.92 billion, a PE ratio of 38.48, a P/E/G ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.04. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $71.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $67.15. MetLife, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $48.95 and a fifty-two week high of $74.68.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.95 by ($0.02). MetLife had a return on equity of 19.48% and a net margin of 2.36%. The firm had revenue of $18.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.07 billion. On average, equities analysts anticipate that MetLife, Inc. will post 8.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.545 per share. This is an increase from MetLife’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 6th. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.10%. MetLife’s payout ratio is 113.66%.

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.