DF Dent & Co. Inc. Decreases Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

DF Dent & Co. Inc. lessened its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 2.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 361,529 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 10,063 shares during the quarter. DF Dent & Co. Inc. owned 0.26% of Verisk Analytics worth $99,576,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 468.8% during the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on VRSK shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $299.33.

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Verisk Analytics Trading Up 1.0 %

NASDAQ VRSK traded up $2.71 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $280.80. 321,224 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 770,486. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.34 and a 1-year high of $358.84. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $292.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $282.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.39 billion, a PE ratio of 43.90, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.88.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $733.55 million. On average, research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.64%. 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 is presently 26.87%.

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

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.36, for a total value of $348,229.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,071,832.96. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction 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 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 4,469 shares of company stock worth $1,291,404. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics 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.