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


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

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.

Check Out Our Latest Report on MetLife

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 - Get Free Report) 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.

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.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected].

Before you consider MetLife, you'll want to hear this.

MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and MetLife wasn't on the list.

While MetLife currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.

Previous articleNext article

POPULAR CATEGORY

corporate

12813

tech

11464

entertainment

15995

research

7394

misc

16829

wellness

12912

athletics

16929