Hsbc Holdings PLC cut its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 22.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 391,483 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 115,702 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC owned 0.28% of Verisk Analytics worth $107,769,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,210,080 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,435,012,000 after buying an additional 392,270 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,691,016 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,292,047,000 after acquiring an additional 72,045 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,811,563 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,051,300,000 after purchasing an additional 19,423 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth $526,676,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,654,826 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $455,789,000 after purchasing an additional 144,599 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays cut Verisk Analytics from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $297.40.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on VRSK
Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.7 %
Shares of VRSK traded up $2.12 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $290.53. 175,516 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 771,422. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $291.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $284.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The company has a market cap of $40.66 billion, a PE ratio of 45.33, a P/E/G 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.
Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.01. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The business had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. On average, research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors 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 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is presently 26.87%.
Verisk Analytics declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign 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 that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $294.95, for a total value of $347,746.05. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,066,180.70. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total transaction of $88,614.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 16,665 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,922,507.70. The trade was a 1.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 3,837 shares of company stock valued at $1,121,618. Insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.
About Verisk Analytics
(
Free Report)
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.
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