diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
index d8e5d6f7a87a..d22228eddccb 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
@@ -2695,15 +2695,19 @@ int cmd_stat(int argc, const char **argv)
 	 */
 	if (metrics) {
 		const char *pmu = parse_events_option_args.pmu_filter ?: "all";
+		int ret = metricgroup__parse_groups(evsel_list, pmu, metrics,
+						stat_config.metric_no_group,
+						stat_config.metric_no_merge,
+						stat_config.metric_no_threshold,
+						stat_config.user_requested_cpu_list,
+						stat_config.system_wide,
+						&stat_config.metric_events);
 
-		metricgroup__parse_groups(evsel_list, pmu, metrics,
-					stat_config.metric_no_group,
-					stat_config.metric_no_merge,
-					stat_config.metric_no_threshold,
-					stat_config.user_requested_cpu_list,
-					stat_config.system_wide,
-					&stat_config.metric_events);
 		zfree(&metrics);
+		if (ret) {
+			status = ret;
+			goto out;
+		}
 	}
 
 	if (add_default_attributes())