Intact Investment Management Inc. Purchases 2,400 Shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET)

Intact Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 26.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,400 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,400 shares during the period. Intact Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in MetLife were worth $933,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MET. CX Institutional raised its holdings in shares of MetLife by 15.9% during the fourth quarter. CX Institutional now owns 68,005 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,568,000 after purchasing an additional 9,337 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of MetLife by 109.2% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,826,658 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $722,727,000 after purchasing an additional 4,606,748 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of MetLife by 27.3% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 13,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,116,000 after purchasing an additional 2,940 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its holdings in shares of MetLife by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 776,244 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $63,559,000 after purchasing an additional 12,723 shares during the last quarter. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new position in shares of MetLife during the third quarter valued at approximately $2,960,000. Institutional investors own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of MetLife from $100.00 to $98.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on shares of MetLife in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. They set a “market perform” rating and a $97.00 price objective for the company. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of MetLife from $96.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of MetLife from $101.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $94.58.

MetLife Trading Up 3.8 %

NYSE MET opened at $80.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a current ratio of 0.16. The company has a market capitalization of $54.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.04. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $83.44 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $82.45. MetLife, Inc. has a one year low of $67.30 and a one year high of $89.05.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The financial services provider reported $2.08 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.13 by ($0.05). MetLife had a net margin of 6.19% and a return on equity of 20.42%. Equities analysts forecast that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 4th were issued a $0.545 dividend. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 4th. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.52%.

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.