Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Monday morning.

Separately, Raymond James raised Mercury General from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $80.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 12th.

Mercury General Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MCY opened at $61.84 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.34 and a quick ratio of 0.34. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $55.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.25. Mercury General has a 1-year low of $44.19 and a 1-year high of $80.72. The company has a market cap of $3.43 billion, a PE ratio of 7.32 and a beta of 0.90.

Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The insurance provider reported ($2.29) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($4.00) by $1.71. Mercury General had a return on equity of 22.54% and a net margin of 8.55%. The firm had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.36 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that Mercury General will post -0.5 EPS for the current year.

Mercury General Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 12th will be issued a $0.3175 dividend. This represents a $1.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 12th. Mercury General’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.61%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Mercury General

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ieq Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Mercury General by 78.6% in the first quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 31,128 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,740,000 after acquiring an additional 13,698 shares during the period. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Mercury General in the first quarter valued at $205,000. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in Mercury General in the first quarter valued at $141,000. Algert Global LLC lifted its holdings in Mercury General by 270.6% in the first quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 94,181 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $5,265,000 after acquiring an additional 68,766 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in Mercury General by 32.9% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 405,464 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $22,665,000 after acquiring an additional 100,472 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 42.39% of the company’s stock.

About Mercury General

Mercury General Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in writing personal automobile insurance in the United States. The company also writes homeowners, commercial automobile, commercial property, mechanical protection, and umbrella insurance products. Its automobile insurance products include collision, property damage, bodily injury, comprehensive, personal injury protection, underinsured and uninsured motorist, and other hazards; and homeowners insurance products comprise dwelling, liability, personal property, and other coverages.