What smart money is saying about Mercury General
1 fund in our archive has pitched Mercury General, most recently Pender US Small Mid in March 2025.
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, fire, and other hazards. The company sells its policies through a network of independent agents and insurance agencies, as well as directly through internet sales portals in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia. Mercury General Corporation was founded in 1961 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.
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Position history
Between Q1 2025 and Q2 2025, 2 fund letters reported a position in Mercury General, with 1 buy (opened or added) and 1 sell (trimmed or exited).
| Quarter | Letters | Bought | Sold | Theses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2 2025 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Q1 2025 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Bought and Sold count moves: the same sentence published by several funds of one house in a quarter counts once.
Fund activity · 2 positions · 2 moves
- TrimmedSpringview CMJune 2025
“Mercury General (MCY) Mercury General, which fell –15% in Q1, rebounded +21% in Q2 and has continued to rise into the third quarter. The stock’s sharp recovery from January’s Los Angeles wildfires—a period that cast real doubt on Mercury’s ability to continue as a going concern—validated the core of our thesis. As discussed in our prior letter, we believed the wildfire losses would prove to be a short-term earnings event, not a capital impairment. Our research into the California insurance market and Mercury’s reinsurance coverage supported this view, and we felt confident enough in our work to take the unusual step of publicly sharing our conclusions on X, directly countering a vocal short seller. That view is now playing out. With increasing clarity that Southern California Edison’s transmission lines were likely responsible for the fires, and with substantial reinsurance recoveries, it appears Mercury’s net exposure will be approximately $320 million after tax—equivalent to about 17% of pre-fire book value. To put that in context, Mercury reported $148 million in after-tax operating earnings in Q2 alone, and management estimates a forward earnings run-rate of $380 million to $440 million annually. Remarkably, GAAP book value per share at the end of Q2 2025 now exceeds the pre-wildfire level, highlighting the resilience of the business and the strength of its reinsurance program. At a market cap of $3.9 billion, Mercury trades at 9–10x earnings, generates ample free cash flow, and may soon resume returning capital to shareholders. We have modestly trimmed the position as the stock rallied but continue to maintain a significant holding.”
Mercury General - New positionPender US Small MidMarch 2025
“New Positions We initiated a position in Cooper Companies, a leading global medical device company with operations in two growing markets: CooperVision, a leader in the contact lens industry and CooperSurgical in women’s healthcare and fertility. The global soft contact lens market is estimated at $11 billion of which CooperVision has a 26% market share6. The industry has high barriers to entry due to stringent regulations, highly specialized manufacturing and technical know-how. We believe it is a durable business with growing population of wearers, recession resistant with limited reimbursement risk. Similarly, the surgical business has favorable characteristics with high single digit compounded growth and competitive advantage sustained through product innovation. We also initiated a position in Mercury General, the leading independent agency writer of automobile and home insurance in California with a presence in a few other states.”
Mercury General
Fund coverage · 1 thesis
- Pender US Small MidMarch 2025
Mercury General is poised for a recovery in earnings following recent rate increases, despite potential wildfire impacts in early 2025.
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