MetLife (NYSE:MET) Rating Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

MetLife (NYSE:MET) was downgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on MET. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of MetLife from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Citigroup raised their target price on MetLife from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on MetLife from $89.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Bank of America decreased their target price on MetLife from $99.00 to $96.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on MetLife from $86.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $86.00.

MetLife Stock Performance

MET stock traded up $2.78 on Friday, reaching $84.04. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,757,833 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,352,342. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.16 and a quick ratio of 0.16. MetLife has a 52 week low of $57.91 and a 52 week high of $84.26. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $75.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $73.32. The company has a market capitalization of $59.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.04.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $2.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.13 by $0.15. MetLife had a return on equity of 21.41% and a net margin of 4.23%. The company had revenue of $17.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.94 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that MetLife will post 8.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MET. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MetLife by 3.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,974,268 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 988,666 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in MetLife by 5.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,299,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $371,993,000 after buying an additional 269,246 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $226,358,000 after buying an additional 100,782 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of MetLife by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,772,751 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $205,544,000 after acquiring an additional 108,739 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

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.