IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd Sells 5,241 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd trimmed its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 61.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,333 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 5,241 shares during the quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd's holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $918,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of VRSK. Amundi raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 52.4% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,252,532 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $351,226,000 after acquiring an additional 430,719 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,231,201 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $331,476,000 after purchasing an additional 78,376 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 822,644 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $226,581,000 after buying an additional 21,494 shares in the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 11.6% in the 4th quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 782,819 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $231,532,000 after buying an additional 81,604 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 747,337 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $205,839,000 after buying an additional 53,502 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were 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. The trade was a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSK has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays lowered 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. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock traded up $1.28 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $298.90. 168,745 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 757,894. The stock has a market cap of $41.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.63, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $306.10. The firm's fifty day moving average is $291.20 and its 200-day moving average is $281.66. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36.

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 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 business had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. Research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.45 dividend. 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 0.60%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics's payout ratio is 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.