Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Cuts Stake in Mercury General Corporation $MCY

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund reduced its position in shares of Mercury General Corporation (NYSE:MCY) by 53.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 25,898 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 29,502 shares during the quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in Mercury General were worth $2,283,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Mercury General by 2.2% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,149,647 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $189,492,000 after buying an additional 46,559 shares during the last quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP raised its holdings in Mercury General by 12.8% in the 2nd quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 2,054,504 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $138,350,000 after acquiring an additional 232,721 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its holdings in Mercury General by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 408,116 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $38,387,000 after acquiring an additional 17,306 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Mercury General by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 346,343 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $22,917,000 after acquiring an additional 6,314 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Park West Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Mercury General by 16.6% in the 4th quarter. Park West Asset Management LLC now owns 329,435 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $30,987,000 after acquiring an additional 46,907 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 42.39% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on MCY. Wall Street Zen raised Mercury General from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, July 4th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Mercury General in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Mercury General from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $100.00.

Mercury General Trading Up 0.5%

NYSE:MCY opened at $107.21 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $5.94 billion, a PE ratio of 7.07 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $104.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $96.40. Mercury General Corporation has a 12 month low of $66.57 and a 12 month high of $113.06.

Mercury General (NYSE:MCY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The insurance provider reported $3.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $1.35. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.46 billion. Mercury General had a return on equity of 32.94% and a net margin of 13.68%. Research analysts forecast that Mercury General Corporation will post 11.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Mercury General Company Profile

Mercury General Corporation is a holding company headquartered in Los Angeles, California, that underwrites and markets property and casualty insurance products through its principal subsidiary, Mercury Insurance Company. Established in 1961, the company has built a reputation for offering a broad range of personal and commercial lines, with a focus on automobile coverage. Mercury General operates in key U.S. markets, deploying a mix of independent agents and direct distribution channels to serve policyholders.

The company’s product portfolio includes personal automobile insurance, homeowners and renters policies, as well as commercial automobile, business liability and umbrella insurance.