MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) Increases Dividend to $0.55 Per Share

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be given a dividend of 0.545 per share by the financial services provider on Tuesday, June 11th. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.01%. This is a positive change from MetLife’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52.

MetLife has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.2% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 6 years. MetLife has a payout ratio of 20.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect MetLife to earn $9.96 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 20.9%.

MetLife Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of MET opened at $72.49 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $71.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $67.02. MetLife has a 12-month low of $48.95 and a 12-month high of $74.68. The company has a current ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market cap of $52.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.04.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MET. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on MetLife from $74.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on MetLife from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of MetLife from $83.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of MetLife from $87.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of MetLife from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.