BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Acquires 42,603 Shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its holdings in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 56.7% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 117,722 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 42,603 shares during the quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in MetLife were worth $8,263,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 valued at $4,418,612,000 after buying an additional 1,974,268 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of MetLife by 22.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,396,274 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $378,799,000 after acquiring an additional 988,666 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in MetLife by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,224,930 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $226,358,000 after acquiring an additional 100,782 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in MetLife by 4.1% during the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,772,751 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $205,544,000 after purchasing an additional 108,739 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in MetLife by 29.7% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 2,120,275 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $157,133,000 after purchasing an additional 485,811 shares during the period. 89.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MET has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Barclays started coverage on shares of MetLife in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $91.00 price target for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on MetLife from $86.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 8th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on MetLife from $83.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on MetLife from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of MetLife from $99.00 to $96.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MetLife has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.54.

MetLife Trading Up 0.4 %

MetLife stock opened at $80.74 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.16 and a quick ratio of 0.16. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $74.90 and a 200-day moving average of $72.78. The company has a market cap of $56.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.75, a P/E/G ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.04. MetLife, Inc. has a one year low of $57.91 and a one year high of $81.85.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.13 by $0.15. MetLife had a return on equity of 21.41% and a net margin of 4.23%. The firm had revenue of $17.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.57 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.94 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that MetLife, Inc. will post 8.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 6th were paid a dividend of $0.545 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 6th. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.70%. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.91%.

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.