TD Asset Management Inc. Has $404.07 Million Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

TD Asset Management Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,467,042 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 14,110 shares during the quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. owned approximately 1.04% of Verisk Analytics worth $404,067,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its position 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 valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VRSK. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays downgraded Verisk Analytics from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $310.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced 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, February 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $299.33.

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Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK traded down $2.31 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $294.58. 728,975 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 758,235. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The firm has a market cap of $41.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $290.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $281.39. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $306.10.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.61%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is currently 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has initiated 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 repurchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,557,155.96. This trade represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company's stock.

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.