Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) Lowered to Hold Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Thursday.

Separately, Raymond James raised shares of Mercury General from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $70.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Wednesday.

Mercury General Trading Up 3.5 %

MCY opened at $56.64 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $63.73. The company has a market cap of $3.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.61 and a beta of 0.85. Mercury General has a one year low of $41.63 and a one year high of $80.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a current ratio of 0.33.

Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The insurance provider reported $2.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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, equities research analysts expect that Mercury General will post 5.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mercury General Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.3175 per share. This is a positive change from Mercury General’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $1.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.24%. Mercury General’s payout ratio is 12.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mercury General

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Mercury General

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MCY. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Mercury General by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 7,496 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $498,000 after acquiring an additional 238 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Mercury General by 2.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 623,460 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $39,273,000 after buying an additional 15,264 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Mercury General by 132.3% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 27,917 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,758,000 after acquiring an additional 15,898 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Mercury General by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 192,300 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $12,784,000 after purchasing an additional 12,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Precision Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Mercury General in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $424,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 42.39% of the company’s stock.

Mercury General Company Profile

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.