MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) Announces $0.55 Quarterly Dividend

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 7th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 4th will be given a dividend of 0.545 per share by the financial services provider on Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.65%.

MetLife has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 11 years. MetLife has a payout ratio of 20.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect MetLife to earn $9.69 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.18 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 22.5%.

MetLife Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE MET traded up $0.13 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $82.12. The stock had a trading volume of 2,744,994 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,677,823. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.16 and a quick ratio of 0.16. MetLife has a fifty-two week low of $64.61 and a fifty-two week high of $89.05. The firm has a market cap of $56.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.07. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $82.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $78.73.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on MET shares. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on MetLife from $89.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen increased their target price on MetLife from $97.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of MetLife from $85.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of MetLife from $90.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of MetLife from $86.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $89.23.

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.