Mawer Investment Management Ltd. Sells 37,134 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Key Points

• Mawer Investment Management Ltd. sold 37,134 shares of Verisk Analytics, reducing its holdings by 8.3% to a total of 411,273 shares, now valued at approximately $122.4 million.
• Verisk Analytics reported a quarterly earnings increase, with earnings per share of $1.73, surpassing estimates, and a revenue growth of 7.0% year-over-year, reaching $753 million.
• The company recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.45, reflecting an annualized payout of $1.80 and a yield of 0.61%, contributing to a dividend payout ratio of 26.35%.

Mawer Investment Management Ltd. lessened its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 8.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 411,273 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 37,134 shares during the quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. owned about 0.29% of Verisk Analytics worth $122,403,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of VRSK. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 225.2% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 14,919 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $4,440,000 after buying an additional 10,331 shares in the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics in the first quarter worth approximately $237,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the first quarter worth approximately $202,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 21.9% during the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 77,807 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $23,157,000 after purchasing an additional 13,995 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 747,337 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $205,839,000 after acquiring an additional 53,502 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK traded down $5.86 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $272.85. The stock had a trading volume of 984,223 shares, compared to its average volume of 880,266. The business's fifty day moving average is $306.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $297.26. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $259.22 and a twelve month high of $322.92. The company has a market cap of $38.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.06, a PEG ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34, a current ratio of 1.53 and a quick ratio of 1.27.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 460.89% and a net margin of 30.67%. The company had revenue of $772.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $767.91 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.74 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.73%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other news, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.06, for a total transaction of $3,649,027.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 67,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,051,406.64. The trade was a 14.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.68, for a total value of $1,755,314.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 12,937 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,980,456.16. This trade represents a 30.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 28,825 shares of company stock valued at $8,947,730 in the last 90 days. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on VRSK shares. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $302.30.

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.