Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Grows Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 0.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,421,008 shares of the business services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 4,069 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned approximately 1.01% of Verisk Analytics worth $391,389,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at about $212,000. Norris Perne & French LLP MI grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Norris Perne & French LLP MI now owns 61,889 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $17,046,000 after acquiring an additional 1,126 shares during the period. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 68.7% during the fourth quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 105,331 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $29,011,000 after acquiring an additional 42,883 shares during the period. Oak Ridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 41,155 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $11,335,000 after purchasing an additional 2,089 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avanza Fonder AB acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,957,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.36, for a total value of $348,229.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,071,832.96. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total value of $88,614.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 16,665 shares in the company, valued at $4,922,507.70. This represents a 1.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,837 shares of company stock worth $1,121,618 over the last 90 days. 0.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on VRSK. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays lowered 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. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised 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 report on Thursday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $297.40.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock traded up $3.93 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $292.34. 335,502 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 772,103. The firm has a market cap of $40.91 billion, a PE ratio of 45.58, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.88. 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, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.34 and a 1 year high of $306.68. The stock's fifty day moving average is $291.59 and its 200 day moving average is $284.99.

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, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. 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.