Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) Raised to Strong-Buy at Raymond James

Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) was upgraded by research analysts at Raymond James from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has a $80.00 target price on the insurance provider’s stock, up from their previous target price of $70.00. Raymond James’ target price indicates a potential upside of 41.24% from the company’s previous close.

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

Mercury General Trading Up 3.5 %

MCY opened at $56.64 on Wednesday. Mercury General has a 52 week low of $41.63 and a 52 week high of $80.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $63.73. The firm has a market cap of $3.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.61 and a beta of 0.85.

Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The insurance provider reported $2.78 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.84. Mercury General had a return on equity of 18.04% and a net margin of 10.18%. On average, equities analysts expect that Mercury General will post 5.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mercury General

In related 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 35.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MCY. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Mercury General by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 7,496 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $498,000 after purchasing an additional 238 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mercury General by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 623,460 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $39,273,000 after buying an additional 15,264 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Mercury General by 132.3% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 27,917 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,758,000 after buying an additional 15,898 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Mercury General by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 192,300 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $12,784,000 after acquiring an additional 12,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Precision Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Mercury General in the fourth quarter valued at $424,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.39% 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.