MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) Raises Dividend to $0.55 Per Share

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be paid a dividend of 0.545 per share by the financial services provider on Tuesday, June 11th. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 6th. This is an increase from MetLife’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52.

MetLife has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.2% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 7 years. MetLife has a dividend payout ratio of 21.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect MetLife to earn $9.94 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.18 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 21.9%.

MetLife Price Performance

Shares of MetLife stock opened at $70.52 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $50.29 billion, a PE ratio of 24.23, a PEG ratio of 0.53 and a beta of 1.03. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $71.66 and a 200 day moving average of $67.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. MetLife has a 12 month low of $48.95 and a 12 month high of $74.68.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83. MetLife had a return on equity of 20.39% and a net margin of 3.50%. The firm had revenue of $17.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.73 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.52 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that MetLife will post 8.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MetLife news, EVP Bill Pappas sold 27,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.27, for a total value of $1,951,290.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 57,768 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,174,893.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, insider Ramy Tadros sold 4,026 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.90, for a total transaction of $289,469.40. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 146,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,567,933.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Bill Pappas sold 27,000 shares of MetLife stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.27, for a total value of $1,951,290.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 57,768 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,174,893.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.32% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

MetLife announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, May 1st that allows the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to repurchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MET has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of MetLife from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. StockNews.com upgraded MetLife from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on MetLife from $83.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of MetLife from $74.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of MetLife from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.23.

About MetLife

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.