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MetLife (MET) Private Debt Portfolio Grows to $91.2 Billion

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MetLife, Inc.’s (MET - Free Report) institutional asset management business MetLife Investment Management (MIM) recently announced that it originated $6.2 billion private placement debt for the initial six months of 2020 across around 100 deals. This consists of $1.7 billion of investments originated on behalf of institutional clients.

MIM continued to serve as a key capital partner to its issuers despite the economic uncertainty led by COVID-19 pandemic. For first-half 2020, MIM’s private placement debt origination comprised $4.5 billion in corporate private placement debt transactions along with $1.7 billion in infrastructure private placement debt transactions.

The origination activity helped the company add 29 credits, which in turn, increased the value of MIM’s total private placement debt portfolio to $91.2 billion as of Jun 30, 2020.

MIM’s corporate private placement activity was varied across different industry sectors, such as general industrial, healthcare, professional services, et al. The company remained active in the first half of 2020 despite the market being quite unstable. 

MIM was selective in its infrastructure private placement opportunities and took part in deals that provided relative value across sectors like electric transmission, renewable power, social housing and infrastructure, etc. In the renewable power, and social housing and infrastructure sectors, investments consisted of around $550 million in six transactions.

In the first half of 2019, the company originated $7.7 billion in private placement debt. Its investments included $5.1 billion in corporate private debt and $2.6 billion in infrastructure private debt.

MetLife’s capabilities, size and experience helped it perform well and provide services to its clients.

Zacks Rank and Price Performance

Shares of this currently Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) multiline insurer have lost 8.4% in the past year, narrower than its industry’s decline of 9.3%.


 
Nevertheless, the company’s strong fundamentals are likely to drive the stock going forward.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked companies in the same space are Assurant, Inc. (AIZ - Free Report) , Old Republic International Corporation (ORI - Free Report) and James River Group Holdings, Ltd. (JRVR - Free Report) . You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Assurant has a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 6%. It carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present.

Old Republic has a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 36.72%. It has a Zacks Rank of 2, currently.

James River Group has a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 14.86%. It presently sports a Zacks Rank #1.

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Our research shows that 5 cutting-edge stocks could skyrocket from the exponential increase in demand for “stay at home” technologies. This could be one of the biggest buying opportunities of this decade, especially for those who get in early.

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