Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) Stock Crosses Above 50 Day Moving Average – Here’s What Happened

Mercury General Corporation (NYSE:MCY) crossed above its 50-day moving average during trading on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $102.43 and traded as high as $102.95. Mercury General shares last traded at $102.5580, with a volume of 281,329 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Mercury General from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, July 4th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Mercury General from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Mercury General in a research report on Tuesday, September 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has given a Buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Strong Buy”.

Mercury General Trading Up 2.3%

The company has a market cap of $5.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.06 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $102.26 and its 200-day moving average is $98.48. The company has a current ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The insurance provider reported $3.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.53 by $0.99. Mercury General had a net margin of 14.77% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The business had revenue of $1.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.52 billion. Research analysts anticipate that Mercury General Corporation will post 13.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mercury General Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 10th were issued a dividend of $0.3175 per share. This represents a $1.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 10th. Mercury General’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.51%.

Institutional Trading of Mercury General

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MCY. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Mercury General in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $479,604,000. Rubric Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Mercury General by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 2,154,504 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $189,920,000 after buying an additional 100,000 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Mercury General by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,149,647 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $189,492,000 after buying an additional 46,559 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Mercury General in the 2nd quarter worth $26,295,000. Finally, Algert Global LLC grew its holdings in shares of Mercury General by 19.7% in the second quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 203,830 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $21,732,000 after acquiring an additional 33,617 shares during the period. 42.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Mercury General

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.