First Trust Advisors LP Sells 73,173 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

First Trust Advisors LP cut its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 46.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 83,170 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 73,173 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 0.06% of Verisk Analytics worth $22,907,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 502,569 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $138,423,000 after buying an additional 23,244 shares during the period. Freedom Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,343 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $921,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 193,589 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $53,290,000 after acquiring an additional 4,107 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 21.5% in the fourth quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 137,393 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $37,842,000 after purchasing an additional 24,306 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zacks Investment Management acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at $2,449,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.36, for a total transaction of $348,229.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,071,832.96. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total transaction of $88,614.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,665 shares in the company, valued at $4,922,507.70. This trade represents a 1.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 3,837 shares of company stock worth $1,121,618. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird increased their target price 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. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price 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 Verisk Analytics from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $310.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on Verisk Analytics in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $297.40.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK traded up $2.36 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $288.41. 777,142 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 773,754. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $291.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $284.99. The company has a market capitalization of $40.36 billion, a PE ratio of 44.99, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.88. 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 one year low of $217.34 and a one year high of $306.68.

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

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.45 dividend. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.