Mercer International Inc. (NASDAQ:MERC) saw an upside of 3.31% to close Friday at $8.74 after adding $0.28 on the day. The 5-day average trading volume is 681,340 shares of the company’s common stock. It has gained $8.76 in the past week and touched a new high 4 times within the past 5 days. An average of 711,830 shares of the company has been traded in the last 20 days, and the 50-day average volume stands at 751,148.
MERC’s 1-month performance is 3.68% or -$0.42 on its low of $7.51 reached on 08/04/23. The company’s shares have touched a 52-week low of $7.37 and high of $17.09, with the stock’s rally to the 52-week high happening on 02/03/23. YTD, MERC has lost -24.91% or -$2.90 and has reached a new high 11 times. However, the current price is down -48.86% from the 52-week high price.
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Insider Transactions
MERC stock investors last saw insider trading activity on Aug 26.Rettig Rainer (Director) most recently sold 12,000 shares at $16.34 per share on Aug 26. This transaction cost the insider $196,024.
Valuation Metrics
MERC stock has a beta of 1.46. Moving on to other valuation ratios, the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is 0.26 while the price-to-book (PB) in the most recent quarter is 0.79.
Mercer International Inc.’s quick ratio for the period ended June 29 was 1.50, with the current ratio over the same period at 2.70. As well, the company’s long term debt to equity for the quarter ending June 29 was 1.91, while the total debt to equity was 1.92. In terms of profitability, the gross margin trailing 12 months is 10.10%. The trailing 12-month EBITDA margin is 23.52% while for the period ending June 29, Mercer International Inc.’s operating margin was 1.30%. The firm’s gross profit as reported stood at $498.2 million against revenue of $2.28 billion.
Earnings Surprise
For the quarterly period ending June 29 this year, Net income and sales went up compared to those figures reported in the previous quarter. Net income grew 172.6% to -$98.31 million, while revenue of -$30.58 million was 68.89% off the previous quarter. Analysts expected MERC to announce $0.45 per share in earnings in its latest quarter, but it posted $0.32, representing a -28.90% surprise. EBITDA for the quarter stood at more than -$68.68 million. MERC stock balance sheet for the quarter ending June 29 shows that total liabilities totaled 1.9 billion, with total debt at $1.43 billion. Shareholders hold equity totaling $66.53 million.
Let’s look briefly at Mercer International Inc. (MERC) price momentum from a technical analysis perspective. The 9-day relative strength index as at close on 18 August was 59.29% to suggest the stock is trending Neutral, with historical volatility in this time period at 28.01%.
The stock’s 5-day moving average is $8.39, reflecting a +9.94% or $0.79 change from its current price. MERC is currently trading +5.17% above its 20-day SMA, -9.24% above its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is away from the SMA50 by -6.82% and SMA200 by-34.87%.
Stochastic %K and %D was 46.32% and 40.32% and the average true range (ATR) pointed at 0.42. The RSI (14) points at 54.57%, while the 14-day stochastic is at 57.75% with the period’s ATR at 0.41. The stock’s 9-day MACD Oscillator is pointing at 0.26 and 0.12 on the 14-day charts.
Analyst Ratings
In the most recent analyst report for Mercer International Inc. (NASDAQ: MERC), Raymond James downgraded it to a Mkt perform rating. They previously had an Outperform rating on the stock. Analysts offering their rating for MERC stock have a consensus rating for the stock as Hold. Currently, 1 brokerage advisors rate MERC as a “sell,”, while 4 advise that investors “Hold.” 0 analysts have rated the stock as underweight. 0 rates the stock as overweight while 0 have offered a “buy” rating.
What is MERC’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts have a consensus price target ranging from a low of $8.00 and a high of $9.50, with their median price target at $9.00. Looking at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts is for Mercer International Inc. (MERC) stock is $8.70.
