Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) Posts Quarterly 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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.84, Zacks reports. Mercury General had a return on equity of 18.04% and a net margin of 10.18%.

Mercury General Stock Up 9.5 %

Shares of NYSE MCY opened at $54.86 on Thursday. 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 has a 52-week low of $39.56 and a 52-week high of $80.72. The firm has a market cap of $3.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.44 and a beta of 0.85. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $63.78.

Mercury General Increases Dividend

The company 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 boost from Mercury General’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.27 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. Mercury General’s payout ratio is currently 12.59%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MCY has been the subject of several research reports. Raymond James upgraded shares of Mercury General from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com cut shares of Mercury General from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 26th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mercury General

In other 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 transaction of $83,153.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 35.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.