# Mercury General (MCY.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/MCY

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:30:07.641Z. Financial observations: FY2015–FY2025.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: pass; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $101.79 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

Estimated value: low $43.54 per share, central $52.43 per share, high $65.88 per share. Buy at or below the central value $52.43 per share. Valuation as of 2026-10-16T07:30:07.641Z; scenarios are not confidence intervals.

Expected annual return: 7.6% at the stated quote. About 7.6% a year at today's price (required return 10.0%). required return 10.0% a year (10% floor; US 10-year bond 5.1% + 4 points).

## Checklist

### understandable: pass

- Financial history: 10 years

- Profitable years in the last ten: 8

- Required profitable years: 8

- Return on common equity variation (informational): 2.01×

Chart: Net income; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: $73M

- FY2017: $145M

- FY2018: -$5.7M

- FY2019: $320M

- FY2020: $375M

- FY2021: $248M

- FY2022: -$513M

- FY2023: $96M

- FY2024: $468M

- FY2025: $541M

### moat: fail

- Common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity

- Underwriting economics assessed through return on tangible common equity

- median return on common equity below threshold

- Bank / P&C ROTE, median of available years: 10.2%

- Required median return: 12.0%

- Return uses tangible common equity: Yes

- Bank ROTE, second-lowest year: -0.4%

- Years with reported combined ratio: 0

Chart: Return on tangible common equity; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 4.3%

- FY2017: 8.5%

- FY2018: -0.4%

- FY2019: 18.3%

- FY2020: 18.9%

- FY2021: 11.9%

- FY2022: -34.9%

- FY2023: 6.4%

- FY2024: 24.7%

- FY2025: 22.9%

### economics: pass

- Common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity

- Book value per share + reinvested dividends, annualized return: 9.3%

- Book return interval: 10 years

- Starting book value per share: $32.98

- Ending book value per share: $43.64

Chart: Annual book + dividend return; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 3.6%

- FY2017: 8.3%

- FY2018: -0.3%

- FY2019: 19.8%

- FY2020: 20.7%

- FY2021: 12.2%

- FY2022: -23.9%

- FY2023: 6.3%

- FY2024: 30.3%

- FY2025: 27.8%

### management: fail

- Common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity

- book per share gain below retained common earnings per share

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: 0.0%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 0.0%

- Share growth excluding flagged crisis recapitalisations: 0.0%

- Five-year share growth excluding flagged crisis recapitalisations: 0.0%

- Flagged crisis recapitalisations: 0

- Book created / earnings retained after dividends and buybacks: 0.99×

- Book value created per share: $10.66

- Earnings retained per share after dividends and buybacks: $10.75

Chart: Shares (first year = 100); fiscal year observations.

- FY2015: 100

- FY2016: 100

- FY2017: 100

- FY2018: 100

- FY2019: 100

- FY2020: 100

- FY2021: 100

- FY2022: 100

- FY2023: 100

- FY2024: 100

- FY2025: 100

### accounting: pass

- Financial accounting warning count: 0

- Known restatement years: 0

## Holders

## Price story

The price assumes profits grow 7.5% a year forever · "MCY Q2 Earnings Beat on Better Underwriting and Premium Growth" (finance.yahoo.com, Aug 2026) · net income +15.6%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:59:08.511Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

The price assumes profits grow 7.5% a year forever

- 2025-07-30: Mercury General Q2 Earnings Beat on Strong Net Investment Income ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mercury-general-q2-earnings-beat-135200083.html))

- 2025-11-12: Surging Earnings Estimates Signal Upside for Mercury General (MCY) Stock ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/surging-earnings-estimates-signal-upside-172003995.html))

- 2026-02-19: Why Mercury General (MCY) Is Down 6.6% After Beating Earnings Amid Heavy Wildfire Losses ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-mercury-general-mcy-down-011404488.html))

### Net income · FY2025

net income +15.6%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/64996/000006499626000005/mcy-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-17.

- FY2016: $73M 

- FY2017: $145M 

- FY2018: -$5.7M 

- FY2019: $320M 

- FY2020: $375M 

- FY2021: $248M 

- FY2022: -$513M 

- FY2023: $96M 

- FY2024: $468M 

- FY2025: $541M 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in insurance property & casualty; annual sales are USD 6 billion.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/64996/000006499626000005/mcy-20251231.htm#000006499626000005 (filed 2026-02-17); FY2025: revenue 5992468000.

### Why customers stay

It earns 10.2% on shareholders’ money, excluding intangible assets.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-17); 10-year return on tangible equity observations [[2016,0.04337578630637757],[2017,0.08532902831382744],[2018,-0.003673316001369798],[2019,0.18331853820293573],[2020,0.18934090278441165],[2021,0.11878757971090871],[2022,-0.34872728336336484],[2023,0.0643520176137062],[2024,0.2468046661315179],[2025,0.22853611932834725]]; median 0.10205830401236807. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 10 of 10 years.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-17); Dividend observations: [[2016,137201000],[2017,137886000],[2018,138478000],[2019,139071000],[2020,139640000],[2021,140226000],[2022,105482000],[2023,70322000],[2024,70326000],[2025,70343000]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 52% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); MCY.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 52.031000000000006 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price assumes profits grow 7.5% a year forever.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-17); Price 101.79; FX 1; original perpetual distributable cash 2.5676148271952113; discount 0.1; growth 0.07477537255923754. Same book-value model and 4× ceiling; no ten-year operating fade applies. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2016-10: $54.47 per share

- 2016-11: $58.40 per share

- 2016-12: $60.21 per share

- 2017-01: $63.25 per share

- 2017-02: $58.63 per share

- 2017-03: $60.99 per share

- 2017-04: $61.49 per share

- 2017-05: $56.00 per share

- 2017-06: $54.00 per share

- 2017-07: $59.89 per share

- 2017-08: $57.47 per share

- 2017-09: $56.69 per share

- 2017-10: $55.97 per share

- 2017-11: $54.88 per share

- 2017-12: $53.44 per share

- 2018-01: $48.95 per share

- 2018-02: $45.64 per share

- 2018-03: $45.87 per share

- 2018-04: $45.73 per share

- 2018-05: $47.11 per share

- 2018-06: $45.56 per share

- 2018-07: $51.43 per share

- 2018-08: $53.90 per share

- 2018-09: $50.16 per share

- 2018-10: $59.31 per share

- 2018-11: $56.65 per share

- 2018-12: $51.71 per share

- 2019-01: $51.70 per share

- 2019-02: $52.97 per share

- 2019-03: $50.07 per share

- 2019-04: $53.78 per share

- 2019-05: $57.65 per share

- 2019-06: $62.50 per share

- 2019-07: $56.71 per share

- 2019-08: $53.50 per share

- 2019-09: $55.88 per share

- 2019-10: $48.06 per share

- 2019-11: $48.98 per share

- 2019-12: $48.73 per share

- 2020-01: $49.09 per share

- 2020-02: $43.31 per share

- 2020-03: $40.72 per share

- 2020-04: $40.96 per share

- 2020-05: $40.23 per share

- 2020-06: $40.75 per share

- 2020-07: $42.91 per share

- 2020-08: $44.73 per share

- 2020-09: $41.37 per share

- 2020-10: $40.71 per share

- 2020-11: $44.47 per share

- 2020-12: $52.21 per share

- 2021-01: $53.01 per share

- 2021-02: $58.40 per share

- 2021-03: $60.81 per share

- 2021-04: $62.27 per share

- 2021-05: $63.60 per share

- 2021-06: $64.95 per share

- 2021-07: $60.83 per share

- 2021-08: $59.71 per share

- 2021-09: $55.67 per share

- 2021-10: $54.49 per share

- 2021-11: $51.02 per share

- 2021-12: $53.06 per share

- 2022-01: $54.66 per share

- 2022-02: $55.00 per share

- 2022-03: $55.00 per share

- 2022-04: $50.43 per share

- 2022-05: $48.95 per share

- 2022-06: $44.30 per share

- 2022-07: $41.93 per share

- 2022-08: $31.90 per share

- 2022-09: $28.42 per share

- 2022-10: $29.00 per share

- 2022-11: $36.28 per share

- 2022-12: $34.20 per share

- 2023-01: $35.73 per share

- 2023-02: $34.05 per share

- 2023-03: $31.74 per share

- 2023-04: $30.41 per share

- 2023-05: $30.01 per share

- 2023-06: $30.27 per share

- 2023-07: $32.18 per share

- 2023-08: $28.61 per share

- 2023-09: $28.03 per share

- 2023-10: $30.88 per share

- 2023-11: $37.25 per share

- 2023-12: $37.31 per share

- 2024-01: $40.05 per share

- 2024-02: $48.69 per share

- 2024-03: $51.60 per share

- 2024-04: $52.26 per share

- 2024-05: $55.83 per share

- 2024-06: $53.14 per share

- 2024-07: $59.87 per share

- 2024-08: $66.23 per share

- 2024-09: $62.98 per share

- 2024-10: $67.63 per share

- 2024-11: $78.96 per share

- 2024-12: $66.48 per share

- 2025-01: $49.84 per share

- 2025-02: $53.93 per share

- 2025-03: $55.90 per share

- 2025-04: $55.42 per share

- 2025-05: $64.48 per share

- 2025-06: $67.34 per share

- 2025-07: $69.25 per share

- 2025-08: $77.33 per share

- 2025-09: $84.78 per share

- 2025-10: $77.30 per share

- 2025-11: $93.12 per share

- 2025-12: $94.06 per share

- 2026-01: $87.59 per share

- 2026-02: $90.58 per share

- 2026-03: $88.15 per share

- 2026-04: $97.31 per share

- 2026-05: $98.03 per share

- 2026-06: $106.62 per share

- 2026-07: $107.12 per share

- 2026-08: $101.96 per share

- 2026-09: $98.85 per share

- 2026-10: $101.79 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

- FY2016: low $20.66 per share, central $23.00 per share, high $25.93 per share

- FY2017: low $20.88 per share, central $23.05 per share, high $25.72 per share

- FY2018: low $19.18 per share, central $21.17 per share, high $23.62 per share

- FY2019: low $21.46 per share, central $23.69 per share, high $26.44 per share

- FY2020: low $24.32 per share, central $26.85 per share, high $29.96 per share

- FY2021: low $25.65 per share, central $28.31 per share, high $31.59 per share

- FY2022: low $18.08 per share, central $19.89 per share, high $22.10 per share

- FY2023: low $16.59 per share, central $18.64 per share, high $21.26 per share

- FY2024: low $19.85 per share, central $22.54 per share, high $26.08 per share

- FY2025: low $36.99 per share, central $44.54 per share, high $55.97 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/64996/000006499626000005/mcy-20251231.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-02-17.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.