Teacher Retirement System of Texas Reduces Stock Holdings in MetLife, Inc. $MET

Teacher Retirement System of Texas lowered its holdings in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 13.5% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 362,835 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 56,726 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in MetLife were worth $29,179,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kathmere Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in MetLife by 88.2% during the 2nd quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 6,328 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $509,000 after acquiring an additional 2,965 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in MetLife by 4.8% during the 1st quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 422,684 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $33,937,000 after acquiring an additional 19,192 shares during the period. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc purchased a new position in MetLife during the 1st quarter valued at $255,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in MetLife by 20.7% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 60,785 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,735,000 after acquiring an additional 10,414 shares during the period. Finally, CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its holdings in MetLife by 20.4% during the 1st quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 108,920 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,745,000 after acquiring an additional 18,461 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MET has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on MetLife from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group lowered their target price on MetLife from $94.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Piper Sandler cut MetLife from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $84.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, September 19th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on MetLife from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of MetLife in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MetLife presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.18.

MetLife Trading Up 0.3%

MET opened at $78.89 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $52.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.37, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. MetLife, Inc. has a 12 month low of $65.21 and a 12 month high of $89.05. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $80.40 and a 200-day moving average price of $78.43.

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

MetLife Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 9th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 4th will be given a $0.5675 dividend. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend 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 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.