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MetLife (MET) Ties Up to Offer Better Pet Care With New Program

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MetLife, Inc.’s (MET - Free Report) subsidiary MetLife Pet Insurance, which was previously known as PetFirst Healthcare and had been acquired by MET in 2020, recently collaborated with LifeBalance to unveil the MyPets rewards program.

Under the program, eligible pet parents can avail of lucrative discounts and offers at selective businesses on the purchase of a wide range of pet care commodities. While the recently launched program entails new rewards, the pet parents will avail the same at no extra cost, which is commendable. Eligible MetLife Pet Insurance policyholders can avail of the rewards a maximum of five times in one calendar year. Meanwhile, the maximum value of each reward should be up to $25.

The new program aims to address the financial worries of pet parents, who can now accrue substantial savings on daily pet needs and services. This, in turn, is likely to help pet parents in providing the much-needed quality care to their pets and bring about improved health outcomes.

The latest initiative is an opportune one for MetLife, as owning a pet entails diversified costs to assure the well-being of pets, which can lead to financial stress. Per MetLife and OnePoll research, pet parents are annually expending over $4,500 on pet care. Thereby, MET is well-poised to capitalize on the prevailing scenario and make the pet care process an affordable one through this partnership with the leading discount network for employees and health plan members, LifeBalance.

MetLife resorted to launching a pet insurance product last year. Equipped with significant benefits, the product served the dual purpose of extending enhanced care to pets and catering to the diversified financial needs of pet parents. All these efforts cumulatively continue to strengthen MetLife’s capabilities in serving pets and result in a robust pet insurance portfolio. MET’s acquisition of the booming pet health insurance administrator PetFirst in 2020 is a testament to the same. The abovementioned initiatives are likely to provide a boost to the Group Benefits business via which the multiline insurer offers pet insurance.

MetLife keeps a keen eye on strengthening its presence across the pet insurance market. This was due to the increasing adoption of pets and the dire need to safeguard the financial position of pet owners in case of the emergence of unplanned costs. To cope with such financial uncertainties, pet owners remain highly inclined toward availing of pet insurance policies. Per Allied Market Research, the global pet insurance market is anticipated to witness a 14.3% CAGR over the 2021-2030 period.

Shares of MetLife have gained 8.5% in a year against the industry’s decline of 15.3%. MET currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

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Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the insurance space include Horace Mann Educators Corporation (HMN - Free Report) , Old Republic International Corporation (ORI - Free Report) and CNO Financial Group, Inc. (CNO - Free Report) . While Horace Mann sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Old Republic and CNO Financial carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Horace Mann’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the last four quarters, the average surprise being 22.80%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HMN’s 2022 earnings suggests an improvement of 1.1% from the year-ago reported figure, while the same for revenues suggests growth of 1%. The consensus mark for Horace Mann's 2022 earnings has moved north by 8.4% in the past 60 days.

The bottom line of Old Republic outpaced earnings estimates in three of the last four quarters and missed once, the average surprise being 38.74%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ORI’s 2022 earnings has moved north by 3.7% in the past 60 days. Old Republic has a Value Score of A.

CNO Financial’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 25.48%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CNO’s 2022 earnings has moved north by 0.4% in the past seven days. CNO Financial has a VGM Score of B.

Old Republic stock has gained 15.2% in a year. Meanwhile, shares of Horace Mann and CNO Financial have lost 5.6% and 7.8%, respectively, in the same time frame.

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