Silver Oak Securities Incorporated Purchases Shares of 3,485 MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET)

Silver Oak Securities Incorporated purchased a new stake in MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 3,485 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $230,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MET. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its holdings in MetLife by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 235,997 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $14,847,000 after acquiring an additional 599 shares during the last quarter. SVB Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in MetLife by 22.2% in the 3rd quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 10,310 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $649,000 after acquiring an additional 1,876 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in MetLife by 42.2% during the 3rd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 72,792 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,579,000 after buying an additional 21,613 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. raised its holdings in MetLife by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 103,659 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,521,000 after buying an additional 755 shares during the period. Finally, Dakota Wealth Management raised its holdings in MetLife by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 7,531 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $474,000 after buying an additional 455 shares during the period. 89.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MetLife Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE:MET opened at $71.87 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $51.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.27, a P/E/G ratio of 0.53 and a beta of 1.03. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $71.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $67.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a current ratio of 0.16. MetLife, Inc. has a 52 week low of $48.95 and a 52 week high of $74.68.

MetLife (NYSE:MET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.95 by ($0.02). MetLife had a return on equity of 19.48% and a net margin of 2.36%. The business had revenue of $18.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.07 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that MetLife, Inc. will post 8.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be given a dividend of $0.545 per share. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.03%. This is an increase from MetLife’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 6th. MetLife’s dividend payout ratio is presently 113.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MetLife news, EVP Bill Pappas sold 27,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.27, for a total transaction of $1,951,290.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 57,768 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,174,893.36. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other MetLife news, EVP Bill Pappas sold 27,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.27, for a total transaction of $1,951,290.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 57,768 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,174,893.36. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Ramy Tadros sold 4,026 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.90, for a total transaction of $289,469.40. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 146,981 shares in the company, valued at $10,567,933.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on MET. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on MetLife from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on MetLife from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on MetLife from $83.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on MetLife from $74.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MetLife from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $80.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, MetLife presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.23.

MetLife Company 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.