Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC Purchases 233 Shares of MetLife, Inc. $MET

Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 14.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,813 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the period. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in MetLife were worth $146,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in MetLife by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 26,488,146 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,126,734,000 after purchasing an additional 1,824,907 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 585,671 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in MetLife by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,862,835 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $711,597,000 after purchasing an additional 36,177 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in MetLife by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,406,512 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $594,410,000 after purchasing an additional 259,993 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in MetLife by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,109,423 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $570,816,000 after purchasing an additional 57,221 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on MET shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of MetLife from $94.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of MetLife from $93.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of MetLife from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut shares of MetLife from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $84.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, September 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MetLife currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.18.

MetLife Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MET opened at $78.71 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $80.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $78.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.16 and a quick ratio of 0.16. MetLife, Inc. has a 1 year low of $65.21 and a 1 year high of $89.05.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.32 by ($0.30). The firm had revenue of $17.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.58 billion. MetLife had a net margin of 5.83% and a return on equity of 19.88%. The business’s revenue was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.28 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 9th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.5675 per share. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 4th. MetLife’s payout ratio is presently 38.47%.

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.