How to buy MetLife stock | 39.28

MetLife, Inc is an insurance—life business based in the US. MetLife shares (MET) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars.

How to buy shares in MetLife

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for MetLife. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: MET. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until MetLife reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$39.28, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of MetLife, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of MetLife. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

How has coronavirus impacted MetLife's share price?

Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, MetLife's share price has had significant negative movement.

Its last market close was USD$39.28, which is 23.33% down on its pre-crash value of USD$51.23 and 71.90% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the shares fell as low as USD$22.85.

If you had bought USD$1,000 worth of MetLife shares at the start of February 2020, those shares would have been worth USD$473.42 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth USD$790.31.

MetLife share price

Use our graph to track the performance of MET stocks over time.

MetLife shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-10-20.

Latest market close	USD$39.28
52-week range	USD$22.85 - USD$53.28
50-day moving average	USD$38.2311
200-day moving average	USD$36.757
Wall St. target price	USD$45.73
PE ratio	5.0621
Dividend yield	USD$1.84 (4.71%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$7.711

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Is it a good time to buy MetLife stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of MetLife, Inc by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

MetLife price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $39.28 from 2020-10-16

1 week (2020-11-19)	-13.69%
1 month (2020-10-27)	4.00%
3 months (2020-08-27)	0.54%
6 months (2020-05-26)	8.81%

1 year (2019-11-26)	-21.08%
2 years (2018-11-26)	-10.30%
3 years (2017-11-24)	-24.21%
5 years (2015-11-25)	-22.45%

Is MetLife under- or over-valued?

Valuing MetLife stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of MetLife's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

MetLife's P/E ratio

MetLife's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 5x. In other words, MetLife shares trade at around 5x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

MetLife's PEG ratio

MetLife's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 4.3265. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into MetLife's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

MetLife's EBITDA

MetLife's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$10 billion.

The EBITDA is a measure of a MetLife's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

MetLife financials

Revenue TTM	USD$68.2 billion
Operating margin TTM	14.04%
Gross profit TTM	USD$20.5 billion
Return on assets TTM	0.8%
Return on equity TTM	10.47%
Profit margin	10.73%
Book value	$83.397
Market capitalisation	USD$35.9 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting MetLife shares

There are currently 10.5 million MetLife shares held short by investors – that's known as MetLife's "short interest". This figure is 10.3% down from 11.7 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting MetLife shares can be evaluated.

MetLife's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

MetLife's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of MetLife shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of MetLife shares traded daily (recently around 5.9 million). MetLife's SIR currently stands at 1.8. In other words for every 100,000 MetLife shares traded daily on the market, roughly 1800 shares are currently held short.

However MetLife's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of MetLife shares, or, against the total number of tradable MetLife shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case MetLife's short interest could be expressed as 0.01% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 MetLife shares in existence, roughly 10 shares are currently held short) or 0.0137% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable MetLife shares, roughly 14 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against MetLife.

Find out more about how you can short MetLife stock.

MetLife's environmental, social and governance track record

Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like MetLife.

When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.

MetLife's total ESG risk score

Total ESG risk: 18.05

Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and MetLife's overall score of 18.05 (as at 10/01/2020) is excellent – landing it in it in the 17th percentile of companies rated in the same sector.

ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like MetLife is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).

MetLife's environmental score

Environmental score: 0.62/100

MetLife's environmental score of 0.62 puts it squarely in the 2nd percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that MetLife is a leader in its sector terms of its environmental impact, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

MetLife's social score

Social score: 7.35/100

MetLife's social score of 7.35 puts it squarely in the 2nd percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that MetLife is a leader in its sector when it comes to taking good care of its workforce and the communities it impacts.

MetLife's governance score

Governance score: 9.83/100

MetLife's governance score puts it squarely in the 2nd percentile of companies rated in the same sector. That could suggest that MetLife is a leader in its sector when it comes to responsible management and strategy, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

MetLife's controversy score

Controversy score: 2/5

ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. MetLife scored a 2 out of 5 for controversy – the second-highest score possible, reflecting that MetLife has, for the most part, managed to keep its nose clean.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary

MetLife, Inc was last rated for ESG on: 2020-10-01.

Total ESG score	18.05
Total ESG percentile	16.56
Environmental score	0.62
Environmental score percentile	2
Social score	7.35
Social score percentile	2
Governance score	9.83
Governance score percentile	2
Level of controversy	2

MetLife share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 31.8% of net profits

Recently MetLife has paid out, on average, around 31.8% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 4.71% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), MetLife shareholders could enjoy a 4.71% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In MetLife's case, that would currently equate to about $1.84 per share.

While MetLife's payout ratio might seem fairly standard, it's worth remembering that MetLife may be investing much of the rest of its net profits in future growth.

MetLife's most recent dividend payout was on 14 September 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 3 August 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have MetLife's shares ever split?

MetLife's shares were split on a 1122:1000 basis on 7 August 2017. So if you had owned 1000 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 1122 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your MetLife shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 10.9% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for MetLife shares which in turn could have impacted MetLife's share price.

MetLife share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, MetLife's shares have ranged in value from as little as $22.85 up to $53.28. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while MetLife's is 1.2879. This would suggest that MetLife's shares are more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

MetLife overview

MetLife, Inc. engages in the insurance, annuities, employee benefits, and asset management businesses worldwide. It operates through five segments: U.S.; 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, accidental death and dismemberment, vision, and accident and health coverages, as well as prepaid legal plans; administrative services-only arrangements to employers; and stable value products, including general and separate account guaranteed interest contracts, and private floating rate funding agreements. It also provides pension risk transfers, institutional income annuities, tort settlements, and capital markets investment products; and other products and services, such as life insurance products and funding agreements for funding postretirement benefits, as well as company, bank, or trust-owned life insurance used to finance nonqualified benefit programs for executives. In addition, the company offers automobile, homeowners', and personal excess liability insurance products. Further, it provides fixed annuities and pension products; medical and credit insurance products; variable, universal, term, endowment, and whole life insurance products; variable, and fixed and indexed-linked annuities; and protection against long-term health care services. The company serves individuals, corporations and their employees, and other institutions and their members through independent agents, property and casualty specialists, sales forces, sales teams and relationship managers, and sponsoring organizations and affinity groups, as well as through career and independent agencies, bancassurance, direct marketing and e-commerce, brokers, and other third-party distribution channels. MetLife, Inc. was founded in 1863 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of MetLife is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 15.544% of MetLife shares are held by insiders and 77.428% by institutions.

• When does the fiscal year end for MetLife?

  MetLife's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is MetLife based?

  MetLife's address is: 200 Park Avenue, New York, NY, United States, 10166-0188

• What is MetLife's ISIN number?

  MetLife's international securities identification number is: US59156R1086

• What is MetLife's CUSIP number?

  MetLife's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 59156R108