B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG Sells 7,208 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG lessened its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 23.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,018 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 7,208 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG's holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $6,615,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,210,080 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,435,012,000 after purchasing an additional 392,270 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at about $526,676,000. Amundi boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 52.4% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,252,532 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $351,226,000 after buying an additional 430,719 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 6.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,231,201 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $331,476,000 after buying an additional 78,376 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.8% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling

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 shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now 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 this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company's stock, 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 sold a total of 5,648 shares of company stock valued at $1,613,047 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays cut Verisk Analytics from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $310.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Six research 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 has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 6.6 %

NASDAQ:VRSK traded down $20.10 on Friday, hitting $284.99. 2,102,297 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 767,931. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $306.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.46, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.88. The company's 50-day moving average price is $292.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $282.37.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The company had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $733.55 million. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.45 dividend. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.63%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.87%.

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.