Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Short Interest Up 28.5% in March

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,570,000 shares, a growth of 28.5% from the February 28th total of 2,000,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 783,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.3 days. Approximately 1.8% of the company's stock are short sold.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,760,958.66. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,210,080 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,435,012,000 after purchasing an additional 392,270 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,691,016 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,292,047,000 after buying an additional 72,045 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,811,563 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,051,300,000 after buying an additional 19,423 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth about $526,676,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,654,826 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $455,789,000 after acquiring an additional 144,599 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock traded up $0.99 on Tuesday, reaching $298.61. The company's stock had a trading volume of 621,595 shares, compared to its average volume of 759,694. 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 company has a market capitalization of $41.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.59, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $291.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $281.66. Verisk Analytics has a 52-week low of $217.34 and a 52-week high of $306.10.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $735.60 million during 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%. Analysts expect that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.60%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.87%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VRSK has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective 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. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $299.33.

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.