Bank of Montreal Can Buys 8,592 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Bank of Montreal Can boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 4.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 214,272 shares of the business services provider's stock after buying an additional 8,592 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can owned approximately 0.15% of Verisk Analytics worth $59,017,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 1,213 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $334,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 897 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $247,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 974 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $264,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Bell Bank grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Bell Bank now owns 1,005 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $277,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. Finally, BSW Wealth Partners raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 1,076 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $296,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on VRSK. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 target price on the stock. Barclays downgraded Verisk Analytics from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $310.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $297.40.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK traded up $3.46 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $295.34. 432,872 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 779,134. The company's 50 day moving average price is $292.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $283.30. The firm has a market cap of $41.33 billion, a PE ratio of 46.07, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.88. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $306.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. On average, equities analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.61%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.87%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In related news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the sale, the insider now owns 9,066 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This trade represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.36, for a total value of $348,229.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,071,832.96. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,648 shares of company stock valued at $1,628,433 over the last ninety days. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.