National Pension Service Sells 5,418 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

National Pension Service decreased its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 2.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 204,639 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 5,418 shares during the period. National Pension Service owned 0.14% of Verisk Analytics worth $56,364,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 17.5% during the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 3,221 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $863,000 after purchasing an additional 479 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 26,695.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 31,083 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $8,329,000 after buying an additional 30,967 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 18.5% in the 3rd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 17,103 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $4,583,000 after buying an additional 2,671 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 110.6% in the 3rd quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,807 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $484,000 after buying an additional 949 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 5,273 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,413,000 after acquiring an additional 153 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on VRSK. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Barclays lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $299.33.

Insider Activity

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $294.95, for a total transaction of $347,746.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,066,180.70. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at $2,557,155.96. This trade represents a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 4,469 shares of company stock worth $1,264,818 in the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 1.5 %

NASDAQ:VRSK traded up $4.42 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $301.33. The company had a trading volume of 989,025 shares, compared to its average volume of 747,041. 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, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $302.25. The company has a market capitalization of $42.55 billion, a PE ratio of 47.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $284.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $278.42.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last announced 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 firm had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $733.55 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is currently 26.87%.

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

Verisk Analytics Company 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.