Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.84 EPS

Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The insurance provider reported $2.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.84, Zacks reports. Mercury General had a net margin of 10.18% and a return on equity of 18.04%.

Mercury General Stock Up 9.5 %

Shares of NYSE:MCY opened at $54.86 on Thursday. Mercury General has a 12-month low of $39.56 and a 12-month high of $80.72. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $59.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $63.78. The company has a current ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market cap of $3.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.44 and a beta of 0.85.

Mercury General Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a $0.3175 dividend. This is a positive change from Mercury General’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. Mercury General’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Heidi C. Sullivan sold 1,076 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 35.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on MCY shares. Raymond James raised shares of Mercury General from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $70.00 to $80.00 in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com downgraded Mercury General from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 26th.

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.