Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) Upgraded at Raymond James

Raymond James upgraded shares of Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) from an outperform rating to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has $80.00 target price on the insurance provider’s stock, up from their previous target price of $70.00.

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded Mercury General from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 26th.

Mercury General Price Performance

MCY opened at $54.74 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.43 and a beta of 0.85. Mercury General has a fifty-two week low of $43.79 and a fifty-two week high of $80.72. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $58.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $63.70. 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 quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The insurance provider reported $2.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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, sell-side analysts expect that Mercury General will post 5.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Mercury General Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a $0.3175 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $1.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.32%. This is an increase from Mercury General’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. Mercury General’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.03%.

Insider Activity at Mercury General

In related news, VP Heidi C. Sullivan sold 1,076 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.28, for a total value of $83,153.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 35.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Mercury General

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in Mercury General by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 7,496 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $498,000 after buying an additional 238 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Mercury General by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 623,460 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $39,273,000 after purchasing an additional 15,264 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position 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 valued at $1,758,000 after purchasing an additional 15,898 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Mercury General by 6.8% during 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 bought a new position in shares of Mercury General during the 4th quarter valued at about $424,000. Institutional investors 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.