Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) Announces Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.84 EPS

Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The insurance provider reported $2.78 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.84, Zacks reports. Mercury General had a net margin of 10.18% and a return on equity of 18.04%.

Mercury General Stock Performance

Shares of MCY traded down $0.55 on Tuesday, reaching $50.13. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,265,417 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,047,710. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $2.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.97 and a beta of 0.85. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $63.90. Mercury General has a 12-month low of $39.56 and a 12-month high of $80.72.

Mercury General Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.3175 per share. This is a positive change from Mercury General’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.53%. Mercury General’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.59%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Mercury General from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 26th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mercury General

In other news, VP Heidi C. Sullivan sold 1,076 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.28, for a total transaction of $83,153.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 35.50% of the company’s stock.

About Mercury General

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.