Mercury General Co. (MCY) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 13th

Mercury General Co. (NYSE:MCY) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 11th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be given a dividend of 0.3175 per share by the insurance provider on Thursday, March 27th. This represents a $1.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. 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 dividend payout ratio of 19.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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 Price Performance

NYSE:MCY opened at $54.86 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.44 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.33 and a quick ratio of 0.33. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $63.78. Mercury General has a 1 year low of $39.56 and a 1 year high of $80.72.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Mercury General

In other news, VP Heidi C. Sullivan sold 1,076 shares of the company’s 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 35.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on MCY shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Mercury General from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 26th. Raymond James upgraded Mercury General from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $70.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Wednesday.

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.