Mercer International (NASDAQ:MERC) Trading Up 2.9% on Analyst Upgrade

Mercer International Inc. (NASDAQ:MERC) (TSE:MRI.U)’s stock price rose 2.9% on Wednesday after TD Securities raised their price target on the stock from $10.00 to $10.50. TD Securities currently has a hold rating on the stock. Mercer International traded as high as $9.50 and last traded at $9.50. Approximately 42,722 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 83% from the average daily volume of 257,138 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.23.

MERC has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Mercer International from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. StockNews.com raised shares of Mercer International to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, March 15th. CIBC raised shares of Mercer International from a “sector underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $8.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Friday, January 12th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Mercer International from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $9.33.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Mercer International during the 4th quarter valued at about $99,000. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of Mercer International by 17.5% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 40,488 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $384,000 after acquiring an additional 6,042 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Mercer International by 13.7% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 264,007 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,265,000 after acquiring an additional 31,879 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in shares of Mercer International by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 68,883 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $591,000 after acquiring an additional 5,313 shares during the period. Finally, Amalgamated Bank lifted its stake in shares of Mercer International by 19.6% in the 3rd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 13,291 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $114,000 after acquiring an additional 2,182 shares during the period. 85.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Mercer International Trading Up 2.4 %

The business’s 50 day moving average price is $9.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.05. The company has a market capitalization of $628.71 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.60 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 2.37 and a current ratio of 3.82.

Mercer International (NASDAQ:MERC) (TSE:MRI.U) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 16th. The basic materials company reported ($0.80) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.74) by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $470.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $508.46 million. Mercer International had a negative return on equity of 29.17% and a negative net margin of 12.14%. The company’s revenue was down 19.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.30 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Mercer International Inc. will post -0.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mercer International Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 27th were issued a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 26th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.17%. Mercer International’s payout ratio is currently -8.24%.

Mercer International Company Profile

Mercer International Inc, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) and northern bleached hardwood kraft (NBHK) pulp worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Pulp and Solid Wood. It manufactures, sells, and distributes pulp, electricity, and chemicals through pulp mills.