Swiss National Bank Purchases 1,300 Shares of Mercury General Co. (NYSE:MCY)

Swiss National Bank grew its position in shares of Mercury General Co. (NYSE:MCY – Get Rating) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 66,800 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,300 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned about 0.12% of Mercury General worth $2,285,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MCY. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in shares of Mercury General by 63.0% during the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,275,905 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $149,942,000 after acquiring an additional 2,039,972 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Mercury General during the third quarter valued at about $10,850,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Mercury General by 10.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,051,777 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $86,732,000 after buying an additional 285,445 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Mercury General by 20.8% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,274,652 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $70,106,000 after buying an additional 219,719 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in Mercury General in the fourth quarter worth about $4,853,000. 42.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. TheStreet raised shares of Mercury General from a “d+” rating to a “c-” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 22nd. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Mercury General in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of Mercury General from $45.00 to $40.00 in a report on Monday, May 8th.

Mercury General Price Performance

MCY stock opened at $29.63 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $30.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $33.62. Mercury General Co. has a 52-week low of $26.15 and a 52-week high of $49.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.54 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a current ratio of 0.25.

Mercury General Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 15th will be given a dividend of $0.3175 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 14th. This represents a $1.27 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.29%. This is an increase from Mercury General’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. Mercury General’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -19.48%.

About Mercury General

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Mercury General Corp. operates as a broker and agency writer of automobile insurance. The firm engages in writing personal automobile insurance and provides related property and casualty insurance products to its customers. Its insurance products include private passenger automobile and related insurance products such as homeowners, commercial automobile and commercial property.