EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC Has $248,000 Holdings in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET)

EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) by 6.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 3,029 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 178 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in MetLife were worth $248,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MET. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of MetLife by 109.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,826,658 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $722,727,000 after purchasing an additional 4,606,748 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its position in MetLife by 76.0% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,466,808 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $283,862,000 after buying an additional 1,496,645 shares during the last quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI acquired a new stake in shares of MetLife in the 3rd quarter valued at $91,771,000. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its position in shares of MetLife by 79.1% during the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 1,726,209 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $142,378,000 after acquiring an additional 762,291 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MetLife by 256.6% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 948,223 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $78,209,000 after acquiring an additional 682,333 shares during the period. 94.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MET has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on MetLife from $101.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of MetLife from $100.00 to $98.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of MetLife from $92.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on MetLife in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $97.00 price target on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com cut MetLife from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $94.58.

MetLife Price Performance

Shares of MET opened at $80.62 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $83.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $82.45. MetLife, Inc. has a 52-week low of $67.30 and a 52-week high of $89.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a current ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $54.92 billion, a PE ratio of 13.50, a P/E/G ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.04.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The financial services provider reported $2.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.13 by ($0.05). MetLife had a net margin of 6.19% and a return on equity of 20.42%. Sell-side analysts predict that MetLife, Inc. will post 9.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 4th were issued a $0.545 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 4th. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.70%. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.52%.

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.