Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) Stock Rating Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

MCY has been the subject of several other reports. Zacks Research raised Mercury General from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Mercury General from a “buy (b)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy”.

Mercury General Stock Down 2.4%

Shares of MCY stock opened at $82.44 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Mercury General has a 12 month low of $81.78 and a 12 month high of $113.06. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $101.01 and a 200-day moving average of $98.60. The firm has a market cap of $4.57 billion, a PE ratio of 7.10 and a beta of 0.93.

Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) last issued 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 10.47% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The business had revenue of $1.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.62 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that Mercury General will post 13.25 EPS for the current year.

Mercury General Announces Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Mercury General

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MCY. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Mercury General during the second quarter worth about $479,604,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Mercury General in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,295,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Mercury General in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $13,127,000. Rubric Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in Mercury General by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 2,154,504 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $189,920,000 after purchasing an additional 100,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PEAK6 LLC bought a new position in Mercury General in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $9,361,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 42.39% of the company’s stock.

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.