Mawer Investment Management Ltd. Has $123.51 Million Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Mawer Investment Management Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 4.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 448,407 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 18,544 shares during the quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. owned about 0.32% of Verisk Analytics worth $123,505,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 953,753 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $262,692,000 after buying an additional 34,826 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at about $11,964,000. Allstate Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,159,000. Maridea Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter worth about $299,000. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 2,407 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $663,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,760,958.66. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047 in the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on VRSK shares. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of VRSK opened at $294.58 on Friday. 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 company has a 50-day moving average price of $290.81 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $281.39. The stock has a market cap of $41.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.96, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.34 and a 12 month high of $306.10.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.01. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The business had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. Equities analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.61%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics Company Profile

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.