Mercury General Corporation $MCY Shares Acquired by Public Sector Pension Investment Board

Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its holdings in shares of Mercury General Corporation (NYSE:MCY - Free Report) by 27.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 84,299 shares of the insurance provider's stock after acquiring an additional 18,088 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board owned about 0.15% of Mercury General worth $4,712,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Mercury General by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,056,821 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $136,739,000 after acquiring an additional 16,299 shares during the last quarter. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Mercury General during the fourth quarter worth $113,252,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in Mercury General during the first quarter worth $53,535,000. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. acquired a new position in Mercury General during the first quarter worth $27,485,000. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its stake in Mercury General by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 370,140 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $24,607,000 after purchasing an additional 1,835 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 42.39% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MCY. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a "strong-buy" rating and issued a $90.00 price objective (up from $80.00) on shares of Mercury General in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Wall Street Zen raised Mercury General from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Strong Buy" and an average price target of $90.00.

Mercury General Stock Up 1.7%

Shares of NYSE:MCY traded up $1.2320 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $74.8220. The company's stock had a trading volume of 235,367 shares, compared to its average volume of 513,974. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $68.20 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $60.36. The company has a market capitalization of $4.14 billion, a PE ratio of 10.63 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.43. Mercury General Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $44.19 and a fifty-two week high of $80.72.

Mercury General (NYSE:MCY - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The insurance provider reported $2.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.10) by $2.77. Mercury General had a net margin of 6.76% and a return on equity of 16.61%. The business had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.45 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Mercury General Corporation will post -0.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mercury General Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 11th will be issued a $0.3175 dividend. This represents a $1.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 11th. Mercury General's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.04%.

Mercury General 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.