Mercury General has Potential

Mercury General Corp. (MCY) is a great stock that looks poised for growth. This is the next new company added to the Spring 2006 eFinancial Challenge version of the virtual Million Dollar Portfolio. Mercury General is a small-cap ($2.95 Billion) insurer, headquarted in Los Angeles, California. In this instance the trailing and forward price/earnings ratios are actually very close, at 11.67 and 11.92 respectively. This compared to Allstate's (ALL) trailing price/earnings of 19.58, and one can begin to see the possible upside potential when the street wakes up to Mercury General...

As an aside, 3M Co. (MMM) came out with some great positive news today, boosting the stock price over 5%!
3M Co. was previously mentioned in my post titled:
Three M's for 3M Company

Mercury General Stuff

The Motley Fool.com - Kick Your Stocks Up a Notch - "The catch was that each firm had to earn a high return on equity (ROE), and its debt had to be less than 50% of stockholders' equity, which roughly equals what owners could expect if the firm were liquidated. "

Yahoo! Finance - Mercury General Corporation Increases Dividend 11.6% - "Since dividends were instituted in the first quarter of 1986, Mercury General's dividend has increased at least once each year with the overall compound rate of increase over twenty years averaging approximately 20%."

MSN Money - MERCURY GENERAL CORP Comparison - In a comparison with Allstate (ALL) and The Progressive Corp. (PGR), Mercury General looks pretty good...