Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. Reduces Stock Position in Mercury General Co. (NYSE:MCY)

Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of Mercury General Co. (NYSE:MCY) by 17.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,835 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 388 shares during the period. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd.’s holdings in Mercury General were worth $122,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Mercury General by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,670,014 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $243,983,000 after acquiring an additional 165,629 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Mercury General during the fourth quarter worth $113,252,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of Mercury General by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 485,767 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $32,294,000 after acquiring an additional 4,372 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,835 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.39% of the company’s stock.

Mercury General Price Performance

NYSE:MCY opened at $61.88 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.32 and a beta of 0.90. Mercury General Co. has a 52-week low of $44.19 and a 52-week high of $80.72. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $55.62 and a 200 day moving average of $60.08. 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 (NYSE:MCY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The insurance provider reported ($2.29) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($4.00) by $1.71. Mercury General had a return on equity of 22.54% and a net margin of 8.55%. The company had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.36 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Mercury General Co. will post -0.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mercury General Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MCY has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Mercury General from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Raymond James raised Mercury General from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th.

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.