$38.14 -0.54 (-1.40%)
2/9/2010 4:03 PM

Mercury General Corp (MCY)

CAPS Rating: 3 out of 5

The Company and its subsidiaries are engaged primarily in writing automobile insurance in a number of states, principally California.

Current Price $38.14 Mkt Cap $2.09B
Open $38.97 P/E Ratio 11.90
Prev. Close $38.68 Div. (Yield) 2.36 (6.20%)
Daily Range $37.93 - $39.07 Volume 259,949
52-Wk Range $22.45 - $40.12 Avg. Daily Vol. 0

MCY News and Commentary

Caps

How do you think MCY will perform vs the S&P 500?

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All Members

52 Outperform
17 Underperform
 

All-Star Members

24 Outperform
6 Underperform
 

Wall Street

5 Outperform
1 Underperform
 

Top MCY Bull/Bear Pitches

The best Bull and Bear pitches based on recency and number of recommendations.

tuckerboreo (98.00)
Submitted November 08, 2009

MCY has been unfairly punished by all insurance companies being bid down. But it is a consistent high performer with good profitability. With its 6.4% dividend payout and a shift to higher quality names, Mercury General will outperform in my… More

NetscribeInsuran (< 20)
Submitted March 01, 2007

Headquartered in Los Angeles, Mercury General Corporation (MCY) and its subsidiaries are engaged primarily in writing automobile insurance principally in California and other thirteen states. With more than 4,900 independent agents and brokers, the… More

MCY VS S&P 500 (SPY)

Recent Community Commentary

Read the most recent pitches from members about MCY.

Recs

1
Member Avatar tuckerboreo (98.00) Submitted: 11/8/2009 5:26:51 PM : Outperform Start Price: $36.16 MCY Score: +7.44

MCY has been unfairly punished by all insurance companies being bid down. But it is a consistent high performer with good profitability. With its 6.4% dividend payout and a shift to higher quality names, Mercury General will outperform in my estimation.

Recs

0
Member Avatar dpdoor (53.05) Submitted: 8/24/2009 8:47:10 PM : Underperform Start Price: $36.42 MCY Score: -0.50

Mercury insurance worked hard to undercut other insurance companies and get a large percentage of California’s insurance business. Like many publicly held companies their stocks did very well while they were growing. It seems the growth is over. Like most companies when the growth stops investors have little reason to invest. They have one teaser that may tempt investors and that is their dividend. Their dividend is higher then most companies and everyone likes dividends, it’s like free money. For a small investment of only $35,000 you can get a dividend of $2,300 per year. If their stock price goes up then at least on paper you make money on the stock. Sounds good, as long as the stock does not loose value. If the stock goes down 7% then you have lost more then the dividend gave you.
What would hurt worse is if their stocks were to go down and they reduce or eliminate the dividend. Currently their dividend is equal to their earnings. They are making as much as they are giving away, that is very generous for a company to do. That is also hard to sustain, if they make any less money then they would have to give away more then they make. Even a charity does not give out more then they bring in.
We assume stocks will recover but why did an insurance company stock drop in the onset of recession. The policies were already in place the claims can take months or years to come due. Their stock was already dropping from a lack of growth. Then they lost 500 million in bad investments. Now their stock is up some because they made money on their investments. Although their operation is costing them more while sales are declining.
From this point it’s a matter of how lucky they get in their investments. As far as their business profit goes simple math tells you old policies in one of the highest unemployment areas of the country is not a good formula. The last report shows that their expenses went up even though their sales went down. This seems like they are servicing more claims. All those years of building a huge list of policy holders is now turning into a huge list of claims.

Recs

0
Member Avatar lovesaves (94.08) Submitted: 3/11/2008 6:25:55 PM : Underperform Start Price: $39.87 MCY Score: -11.49

Found this company under the insurance tag. Sell all property insurance and casualty stocks, or see your portfolio bcome a casualty! Warren Buffett is negative on the sector and that's good enough for me. Financial sector s--t has to work iits way through the whole goose.

Leaderboard

Find the members with the highest scoring picks in MCY.

Score Leader

TrackBRogers

TrackBRogers (97.70) Score: +33.70

The Score Leader is the member with the highest score across all their picks in MCY.

Top
Pick
Member Name Member
Rating
Start
Date
Call Time
Frame
Start
Price
Stock
Gain
S&P
Gain
Score Commentary
StargateMatthew < 20 11/28/2008 Underperform NS $40.47 -5.76% +24.12% +29.88
Bankwatcher1 < 20 10/7/2008 Underperform NS $49.39 -22.78% +7.07% +29.85
schwah8 99.45 10/13/2008 Underperform NS $43.35 -12.02% +16.44% +28.45
poconobear 95.94 3/16/2009 Outperform 1Y $24.22 +57.48% +41.79% +15.70
Yale77 < 20 3/24/2008 Outperform 1Y $39.00 -2.20% -17.55% +15.34
karlm26 25.25 3/31/2008 Outperform 3Y $39.71 -3.95% -16.05% +12.10
stockdox 78.03 3/7/2008 Outperform 5Y $39.16 -2.60% -14.52% +11.92
MrJoshua2 78.02 2/25/2008 Outperform 5Y $40.60 -6.06% -17.56% +11.50
spaceandtimes 35.27 12/24/2007 Outperform NS $44.07 -13.45% -24.91% +11.46
knudfool 98.60 2/20/2008 Outperform 5Y $40.62 -6.10% -16.60% +10.50

Wall Street

See what the Wall Street professionals think, according to their public statements and filings.

Member Name Member
Rating
Start
Date
Call Time
Frame
Start
Price
Stock
Gain
S&P
Gain
Score End Date Commentary
TrackBRogers 97.70 5/28/2008 Outperform 1Y $49.80 -4.94% -38.64% +33.70 10/24/2008 @ $47.34 1 Comment
TrackBerkowitz 83.78 9/30/2007 Outperform NS $49.56 -35.01% -40.90% +5.89 5/28/2009 @ $32.21 3 Comments
TrackChrisDavis < 20 9/30/2007 Outperform NS $47.24 -19.26% -26.38% +7.11 1 Comment
TrackRichAster 95.99 9/30/2007 Outperform NS $47.24 -19.26% -26.38% +7.11 2 Comments
TrackRodriguez 90.42 9/30/2007 Outperform NS $47.24 -19.26% -26.38% +7.11 1 Comment
TrackEveillard 93.31 9/30/2007 Outperform NS $47.24 -19.26% -26.38% +7.11 1 Comment
TrackCreditSuiss 93.62 10/5/2006 Outperform NS $44.42 -14.14% -15.63% +1.49
TrackStifel 96.44 8/18/2006 Underperform NS $41.91 -9.00% -12.20% -3.20

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