California State Teachers Retirement System Purchases 1,259 Shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET)

California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 0.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,057,073 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,259 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.15% of MetLife worth $78,340,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of MetLife by 678.4% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 287,311 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $19,000,000 after buying an additional 250,402 shares during the period. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp bought a new stake in shares of MetLife in the first quarter valued at about $7,012,000. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in shares of MetLife by 54.9% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 371,062 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,983,000 after buying an additional 131,538 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp raised its position in MetLife by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 2,005,738 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $132,641,000 after purchasing an additional 35,782 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in MetLife in the first quarter worth about $1,053,000. 89.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on MET shares. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of MetLife from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of MetLife from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of MetLife from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of MetLife from $82.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.08.

MetLife Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of MET stock traded up $0.10 on Wednesday, hitting $76.85. The stock had a trading volume of 3,317,534 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,316,397. MetLife, Inc. has a twelve month low of $57.91 and a twelve month high of $77.50. The firm has a market cap of $54.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.41, a PEG ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $71.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $71.12.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last announced 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 net margin of 3.50% and a return on equity of 20.39%. The company had revenue of $17.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.94 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that MetLife, Inc. will post 8.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 6th will be given a $0.545 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 6th. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.84%. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.91%.

MetLife announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, May 1st that authorizes the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.