Global insurance giant MetLife (NYSE: MET) fell short of the market’s revenue expectations in Q2 CY2026, but sales rose 6.9% year on year to $19.15 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $2.43 per share was 6.2% above analysts’ consensus estimates.
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MetLife (MET) Q2 CY2026 Highlights:
- Net Premiums Earned: $11.44 billion vs analyst estimates of $12.12 billion (5.3% year-on-year decline, 5.7% miss)
- Revenue: $19.15 billion vs analyst estimates of $19.5 billion (6.9% year-on-year growth, 1.8% miss)
- Pre-tax Profit: $1.04 billion (5.4% margin)
- Adjusted EPS: $2.43 vs analyst estimates of $2.29 (6.2% beat)
- Book Value per Share: $38.59 vs analyst estimates of $59.52 (7.1% year-on-year decline, 35.2% miss)
- Market Capitalization: $61.85 billion
Company Overview
Founded in 1863 by a group of New York businessmen during the Civil War era, MetLife (NYSE: MET) is a global financial services company that provides insurance, annuities, employee benefits, and asset management services to individuals and businesses worldwide.
Revenue Growth
Insurance companies generate revenue three ways. The first is the core insurance business itself, represented in the income statement as premiums earned. The second source is investment income from investing the “float” (premiums collected but not yet paid out as claims) in assets such as fixed-income assets and equities. The third is fees from policy administration, annuities, and other value-added services. Regrettably, MetLife’s revenue grew at a sluggish 2.9% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This fell short of our benchmarks and is a poor baseline for our analysis.
We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within financials, a half-decade historical view may miss recent interest rate changes, market returns, and industry trends. MetLife’s annualized revenue growth of 5.5% over the last two years is above its five-year trend, which is encouraging. 
Note: Quarters not shown were determined to be outliers because they were impacted by outsized investment gains/losses that are not indicative of the recurring fundamentals of the business.
This quarter, MetLife’s revenue grew by 6.9% year on year to $19.15 billion, missing Wall Street’s estimates.
Net premiums earned made up 69% of the company’s total revenue during the last five years, meaning insurance operations are MetLife’s largest source of revenue.
Our experience and research show the market cares primarily about an insurer’s net premiums earned growth as investment and fee income are considered more susceptible to market volatility and economic cycles.
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Book Value Per Share (BVPS)
Insurers are balance sheet businesses, collecting premiums upfront and paying out claims over time. Premiums collected but not yet paid out, often referred to as the float, are invested and create an asset base supported by a liability structure. Book value per share (BVPS) captures this dynamic by measuring these assets (investment portfolio, cash, reinsurance recoverables) less liabilities (claim reserves, debt, future policy benefits). BVPS is essentially the residual value for shareholders.
We therefore consider BVPS very important to track for insurers and a metric that sheds light on business quality because it reflects long-term capital growth and is harder to manipulate than more commonly-used metrics like EPS.
MetLife’s BVPS declined at a 13.6% annual clip over the last five years. BVPS has stabilized recently as it was flat over the last two years at about $38.59 per share.
Over the next 12 months, Consensus estimates call for MetLife’s BVPS to grow by 72.3% to $59.52, elite growth rate.
Key Takeaways from MetLife’s Q2 Results
We struggled to find many positives in these results. Its net premiums earned missed and its book value per share fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this was a weaker quarter. The stock remained flat at $97 immediately following the results.
Big picture, is MetLife a buy here and now? What happened in the latest quarter matters, but not as much as longer-term business quality and valuation, when deciding whether to invest in this stock. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).
