Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) Stock Price Crosses Below 200 Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

Mercury General Corporation (NYSE:MCY) passed below its two hundred day moving average during trading on Wednesday. The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $98.67 and traded as low as $87.51. Mercury General shares last traded at $88.7340, with a volume of 851,300 shares changing hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on MCY shares. Zacks Research raised Mercury General from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. Weiss Ratings lowered Mercury General from a “buy (b)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy”.

Mercury General Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $101.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $98.60. The company has a market capitalization of $4.57 billion, a PE ratio of 7.10 and a beta of 0.93.

Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 3rd. The insurance provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.06. Mercury General had a net margin of 14.77% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.62 billion. Research analysts anticipate that Mercury General Corporation will post 13.25 EPS for the current year.

Mercury General Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 17th will be given a dividend of $0.3175 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 17th. This represents a $1.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Mercury General’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.94%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in shares of Mercury General by 154.5% during the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 840 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $90,000 after acquiring an additional 510 shares during the last quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its position in Mercury General by 54.3% during the third quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 5,976 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $591,000 after purchasing an additional 2,103 shares during the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its position in Mercury General by 1.0% during the third quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,619 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,346,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Leuthold Group LLC raised its stake in Mercury General by 10.0% during the third quarter. Leuthold Group LLC now owns 37,705 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,727,000 after purchasing an additional 3,434 shares during the period. Finally, Point Nemo Capital LLC raised its stake in Mercury General by 0.9% during the third quarter. Point Nemo Capital LLC now owns 13,911 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,375,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.39% of the company’s stock.

Mercury General Company Profile

Mercury General Corporation (NYSE:MCY) is an insurance holding company that writes personal and commercial property and casualty insurance through its subsidiaries. The company is best known for automobile insurance, offering coverage such as liability, collision, comprehensive and uninsured or underinsured motorist protection.

Its product portfolio also includes homeowners, renters, condominium, mobile-home and umbrella insurance, as well as commercial automobile coverage and other related property and casualty products.