JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd Has $555,000 Holdings in MetLife, Inc. $MET

JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd decreased its position in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 51.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 6,735 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 7,045 shares during the quarter. JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd’s holdings in MetLife were worth $555,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in MetLife during the second quarter worth $756,104,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in MetLife by 6.8% during the 2nd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 9,144,635 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $735,412,000 after acquiring an additional 585,671 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of MetLife by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,624,582 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $532,749,000 after acquiring an additional 162,041 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its stake in shares of MetLife by 40.2% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 4,507,362 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $361,265,000 after purchasing an additional 1,292,107 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of MetLife by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,426,101 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $355,239,000 after purchasing an additional 80,633 shares in the last quarter. 94.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MET has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler downgraded MetLife from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $84.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, September 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of MetLife from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 23rd. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MetLife to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of MetLife in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $101.00 price target on shares of MetLife and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MetLife has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.73.

MetLife Stock Performance

NYSE MET opened at $80.31 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $78.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $78.98. MetLife, Inc. has a 12-month low of $65.21 and a 12-month high of $88.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company has a market cap of $52.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.12, a PEG ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 0.76.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $2.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $12.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.64 billion. MetLife had a net margin of 5.30% and a return on equity of 21.00%. The business’s revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.95 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 4th were given a $0.5675 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 4th. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.75%.

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.