Clarius Group LLC Trims Stock Holdings in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET)

Clarius Group LLC reduced its stake in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 2.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,551 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 137 shares during the period. Clarius Group LLC’s holdings in MetLife were worth $457,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in MetLife by 3.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,622,348 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,418,612,000 after purchasing an additional 1,974,268 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of MetLife by 22.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,396,274 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $378,799,000 after purchasing an additional 988,666 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of MetLife by 5.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,299,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $371,993,000 after purchasing an additional 269,246 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in MetLife by 3.2% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,224,930 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $226,358,000 after acquiring an additional 100,782 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of MetLife by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,772,751 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $205,544,000 after buying an additional 108,739 shares in the last quarter. 89.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MET. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 8th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of MetLife from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of MetLife from $89.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com cut shares of MetLife from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Barclays began coverage on shares of MetLife in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $91.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $88.46.

MetLife Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MET opened at $85.51 on Friday. MetLife, Inc. has a 12 month low of $57.91 and a 12 month high of $85.97. The company has a market cap of $59.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.05, a P/E/G ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 1.04. The business’s 50 day moving average is $76.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $73.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $2.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.13 by $0.15. MetLife had a return on equity of 21.41% and a net margin of 4.23%. The company had revenue of $17.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.94 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 8.61 EPS for the current year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 5th will be paid a $0.545 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 5th. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.55%. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 58.76%.

MetLife 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.