Allstate Corp Buys Shares of 4,209 Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Allstate Corp bought a new position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 4,209 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,159,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 188.2% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 25,637 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $7,454,000 after buying an additional 16,742 shares during the last quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $212,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 479.1% during the 3rd quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd now owns 16,853 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $4,516,000 after purchasing an additional 13,943 shares in the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 16.9% in the third quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 63,217 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $16,940,000 after buying an additional 9,145 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norris Perne & French LLP MI lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Norris Perne & French LLP MI now owns 61,889 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $17,046,000 after buying an additional 1,126 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK stock traded up $1.10 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $299.71. 748,913 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 759,256. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.34 and a 52-week high of $306.10. 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 market cap of $42.04 billion, a PE ratio of 46.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $291.57 and a 200 day moving average of $281.87.

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Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $733.55 million. Research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.60%. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.87%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were 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 owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at $2,557,155.96. The trade was a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047 over the last 90 days. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on VRSK shares. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $310.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price 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. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $299.33.

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.