Met Life: High Quality, Low Risk Financial

I think this may be a good time to look for high quality, low risk financials for longer term time frames. I think Met Life (MET) fits the bill at a price of 57 or less. To provide additional downside protection as well as more upside if MET only goes up moderately, I would also write an out of the money Jan 2010 covered leap MET call (strike price 70) which currently trades around 4.40.

Here are some things I like about MET:

1. Very low exposure to sub-prime (less than 1% of total assets mainly in high rated tranches).
2. High credit rating (A rating by S&P).
3. Leading PE ratio under 10 times earnings.
4. Low debt to capital (under 30%) but projected earnings growth in double digits.
5. Strong operating cash flow.
6. Growing international operations, especially in Mexico, Korea, China and Japan.
7. MET will benefit from the aging US population as baby boomers look for retirement-oriented financial products from solid companies.

Major risks - Primarily litigation risk.

Full disclosure: I am long a starter position in MET.