Company Update: MetLife Inc (NYSE:MET) – Dodd, Frank blast ruling that MetLife not too big to fail

[Reuters] – A federal court’s striking down of the government’s designation of insurer MetLife Inc as “too-big-to-fail” could undermine efforts to head off another financial crisis, authors of the landmark Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law said. In a brief filed on Thursday with a federal appeals court, former Senator Chris Dodd, former Representative Barney Frank and other Democratic party leaders said the designation was necessary to bring a key nonbank financial institution under an effective regulatory regime. Signed by 20 current and former lawmakers, the brief opposes U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer’s order in March, now under appeal, rescinding the government’s 2014 designation of MetLife as a systematically important financial institution. Read more on this. MetLife, Inc. (MET) , with a current market cap of $48.53B, opened at $43.38. Looking at today’s trading action, the company’s one day range from $43.20 to $44.18 and has traded between $35.00 and $58.13 over the past 12 months. MET shares are currently priced at 7.81x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively inexpensive compared to the industry’s 16.36x earnings multiple for the same period. The company pays shareholders $1.60 per share in dividend income per year, for a current yield of 3.76%. Consensus earnings for the current quarter by the 16 sell-side analysts covering the stock is an estimate of $1.39 per share, which would be $0.17 worse than the year-ago quarter and a $0.02 sequential decrease. The full-year EPS estimate is $5.45 which would be a $0.59 improvement than last year’s full-year earnings. The quarterly earnings estimate is based on a consensus revenue forecast of the current quarter of $17.33 Billion. If realized, that would be a 0.17% decrease over the year-ago quarter. Recently, Raymond James upgraded MET from Mkt Perform to Strong Buy (Jan 22, 2016). Previously, Macquarie upgraded MET from Neutral to Outperform. The average price target for MET shares by the analysts covering the stock is $51.00, which is 17.57% above where the stock opened this morning. See more in (NYSE:MET) Similar Articles: Company Update: MetLife Inc (NYSE:MET) – MetLife ruling bolsters other firms arguing systemic unimportance Company Update: American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) – AIG CEO says MetLife ‘too big to fail’ ruling an opportunity Market Update: MetLife Inc (NYSE:MET) – MetLife challenges U.S. ‘too big to fail’ designation in court