Mawer Investment Management Ltd. Sells 52,860 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Mawer Investment Management Ltd. reduced its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 10.2% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 466,951 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 52,860 shares during the period. Mawer Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $125,124,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth about $34,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the third quarter worth about $34,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth about $46,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on VRSK shares. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Barclays raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK stock traded down $0.03 on Monday, hitting $280.77. The company had a trading volume of 1,452 shares, compared to its average volume of 784,575. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $291.42. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $271.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $267.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The firm has a market cap of $39.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 0.86.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The business had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.19 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.52 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total value of $54,266.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,289,184.64. The trade was a 1.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

About Verisk Analytics

Verisk Analytics, Inc provides data analytics and technology solutions to the insurance markets in the United States and internationally. It offers policy language, prospective loss costs, policy writing and rating rules, and various underwriting solutions for risk selection and segmentation, pricing, and workflow optimization; property- and auto- specific rating and underwriting information solutions that allows clients to understand, quantify, underwrite, mitigate, and avoid potential loss for risks; catastrophe modeling solutions, which enables companies to identify, quantify, and plan for the financial consequences of catastrophes for use by insurers, reinsurers, intermediaries, financial institutions, and governments.