Hedge Funds Have Endorsed These Four Insurance Stocks

#4 Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET)

Investors with Long Positions (as of September 30): 47

Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (as of September 30): $1.72 Billion

Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET) also saw a decline in popularity among the investors we follow, with the number of funds holding long positions having dropped by eight between July and September. On the other hand, the total value of the holdings of these investors slid by $980 million and they amassed just 3.30% of the company’s outstanding stock. More specifically, Richard S. Pzena‘s Pzena Asset Management trimmed its stake in the $51.06 billion insurance provider by 1% in the July-September period to 5.97 million shares. Jeffrey Tannenbaum’s Fir Tree is also bullish on the stock, holding 4.81 million shares, according to its latest 13F filing.

Last week, Metlife announced that it is going to separate a “substantial portion” of its US retail business. The company will retain its other reporting segments, such as Group, Voluntary and Worksite Benefits, Corporate Benefit Funding, Asia, Latin America, and Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The new company that will be separated from Metlife will include MetLife Insurance Company USA, General American Life Insurance Company, Metropolitan Tower Life Insurance Company, as well as some subsidiaries that have reinsured risks underwritten by Metlife Insurance Company USA, Metlife said in a statement. The new company will have $240 billion in assets and will include 50% of Metlife’s US Retail segment.