LPL Financial LLC Has $29.78 Million Stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

LPL Financial LLC increased its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 16.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 108,103 shares of the business services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 15,233 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC owned 0.08% of Verisk Analytics worth $29,775,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Guardian Partners Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at $1,676,000. Fox Run Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,422,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth about $19,465,000. Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 233,517 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $64,319,000 after purchasing an additional 1,177 shares during the period. Finally, Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 44.9% during the fourth quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 13,384 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $3,686,000 after buying an additional 4,149 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays lowered Verisk Analytics from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $299.33.

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Verisk Analytics Price Performance

NASDAQ VRSK traded up $0.99 on Tuesday, reaching $298.61. The company's stock had a trading volume of 621,595 shares, compared to its average volume of 759,694. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $306.10. 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 firm's 50 day moving average is $291.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $281.66. The stock has a market cap of $41.89 billion, a PE ratio of 46.59, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last issued its 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 firm had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. 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. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.60%. Verisk Analytics's payout ratio is 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has initiated a share buyback 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 buy up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business'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 sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was 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 directly owns 13,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,760,958.66. This represents a 7.88 % 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. Insiders own 0.40% of the company's stock.

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.