Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC Acquires 3,131 Shares of Mercury General Co. (NYSE:MCY)

Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mercury General Co. (NYSE:MCY) by 92.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,531 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,131 shares during the quarter. Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC’s holdings in Mercury General were worth $434,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of Mercury General by 319.9% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 46,557 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,931,000 after purchasing an additional 35,470 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Mercury General by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 17,312 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,139,000 after purchasing an additional 1,024 shares during the last quarter. Sheets Smith Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Mercury General by 40.4% in the 4th quarter. Sheets Smith Wealth Management now owns 8,030 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $534,000 after purchasing an additional 2,312 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in shares of Mercury General by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 28,348 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,885,000 after purchasing an additional 1,161 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Mercury General by 68.9% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,944 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $122,000 after purchasing an additional 793 shares during the last quarter. 42.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on MCY shares. Raymond James raised shares of Mercury General from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. StockNews.com raised shares of Mercury General from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th.

Mercury General Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE MCY opened at $61.88 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.43 billion, a PE ratio of 7.32 and a beta of 0.90. Mercury General Co. has a 12-month low of $44.19 and a 12-month high of $80.72. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $55.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $60.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The insurance provider reported ($2.29) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($4.00) by $1.71. The business had revenue of $1.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.36 billion. Mercury General had a net margin of 8.55% and a return on equity of 22.54%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Mercury General Co. will post -0.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mercury General Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 12th will be paid a $0.3175 dividend. This represents a $1.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 12th. Mercury General’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.61%.

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.