Teacher Retirement System of Texas Buys 7,429 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 12.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 68,997 shares of the business services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 7,429 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas' holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $19,004,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of VRSK. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 468.8% in the 4th 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 period. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK traded up $4.27 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $292.03. The company's stock had a trading volume of 751,995 shares, compared to its average volume of 723,352. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $217.34 and a one year high of $306.10. The stock's 50-day moving average is $289.76 and its two-hundred day moving average is $281.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.96 billion, a PE ratio of 45.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics's payout ratio is presently 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has authorized a share buyback 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 purchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company's stock, 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 filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction 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. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047 over the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.