Blair William & Co. IL Cuts Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Blair William & Co. IL lowered its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 3.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 391,444 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 14,428 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL owned approximately 0.28% of Verisk Analytics worth $107,815,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised 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 acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,066,180.70. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In 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 company insiders.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised 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 report on Thursday, February 27th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target 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 reduced their price objective 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. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Barclays cut 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 report on Friday, January 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock traded up $1.12 on Monday, hitting $295.70. The stock had a trading volume of 376,539 shares, compared to its average volume of 756,769. 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, Inc. has a one year low of $217.34 and a one year high of $306.10. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $290.81 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $281.46. The stock has a market cap of $41.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.15, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.01. The business 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 predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.61%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.