Mercury General Co. (MCY) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 13th

Mercury General Co. (NYSE:MCY) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 11th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.3175 per share by the insurance provider on Thursday, March 27th. This represents a $1.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.35%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. This is a 0.2% increase from Mercury General’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32.

Mercury General has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 20.6% annually over the last three years. Mercury General has a dividend payout ratio of 21.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Mercury General to earn $5.25 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.27 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.2%.

Mercury General Stock Performance

NYSE:MCY opened at $53.99 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.99 billion, a PE ratio of 6.39 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $53.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $63.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.34 and a current ratio of 0.34. Mercury General has a fifty-two week low of $44.19 and a fifty-two week high of $80.72.

Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The insurance provider reported $2.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.84. Mercury General had a net margin of 8.55% and a return on equity of 22.54%. Research analysts anticipate that Mercury General will post -0.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on MCY. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Mercury General from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Raymond James raised shares of Mercury General from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th.

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.