Mercury General Co. (NYSE:MCY) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.32 Per Share

Mercury General Co. (NYSE:MCY) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 11th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.3175 per share by the insurance provider on Thursday, March 27th. This represents a $1.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.09%. This is a positive change from Mercury General’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32.

Mercury General has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 20.6% annually over the last three years. Mercury General has a payout ratio of 19.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Mercury General to earn $3.45 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.27 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 36.8%.

Mercury General Trading Up 21.4 %

Shares of MCY opened at $60.82 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $63.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.37 billion, a PE ratio of 6.03 and a beta of 0.85. Mercury General has a 12-month low of $39.56 and a 12-month high of $80.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The insurance provider reported $2.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.84. Mercury General had a net margin of 10.18% and a return on equity of 18.04%. As a group, research analysts predict that Mercury General will post 5.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Heidi C. Sullivan sold 1,076 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.28, for a total transaction of $83,153.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 35.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on MCY shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Mercury General from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 26th. Raymond James raised Mercury General from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Wednesday.

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.