MetLife Inc. (NYSE: MET) stock fell -3.07% on Wednesday to $50.25 against a previous-day closing price of $51.84. With 5.65 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 6.19 million shares. During the session, the Insurance – Life company that operates in wider Financial sector, reached to the highest price of $51.63 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $50.11. The 52-week range on MET shows that it touched its highest point at $77.36 and its lowest point at $48.95 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $75.93. With its current market cap of 38.71 billion, MET has annualized dividend of $2.08 while the current yield stands at 4.14%. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.07.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of MET was down-trending over the past week, with a drop of -2.80%, but this was down by -15.13% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -28.80% while six-month performance fell -33.79%. The stock lost -21.42% in the past year, while it has lost -30.57% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for MET yields 1.83 with Next year EPS estimates of 9.10. For the next quarter, that number is 2.03. This implies an EPS growth rate of -62.90% for this year and 16.04% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 4.79% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of -8.70%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 775.40 million MET shares are outstanding with a float of 659.31 million shares on hand for trading. On May 14, 2023, short shares totaled 10.78 million, which was 1.41% higher than short shares on Apr 13, 2023. In addition to Mr. Michel Abbas Khalaf as the firm’s CEO, Pres & Director, Mr. John Dennis McCallion CPA serves as its Exec. VP & CFO.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 75.77% of MET’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 42.55% of MET, in contrast to 32.60% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 16.45%. As the largest shareholder in MET with 7.40% of the stake, The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds 57,308,129 shares worth 57,308,129. A second-largest stockholder of MET, Dodge & Cox, holds 54,069,754 shares, controlling over 6.98% of the firm’s shares. Wellington Management Co. LLP is the third largest shareholder in MET, holding 37,255,252 shares or 4.81% stake. With a 4.86% stake in MET, the Dodge & Cox Stock Fund is the largest stakeholder. A total of 37,655,179 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, which owns about 2.33% of MET stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 18,040,765 shares valued at 1.11 billion. Vanguard 500 Index Fund holds 2.00% of the stake in MET, owning 15,470,286 shares worth 948.79 million.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for MET since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With MET analysts setting a high price target of $86.00 and a low target of $60.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $75.80. Based on these targets, MET could surge 71.14% to reach the target high and rise by 19.4% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 50.85% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded MET stock several times over the past three months with 51 Buys and 20 Sells. In these transactions, 671,200 shares were bought while 367,106 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 115 while that of sell transactions has risen to 28 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 820,502 while 479,183 shares were sold.
