Cerity Partners LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 4.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 45,260 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 1,973 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC's holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $12,335,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,691,016 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,292,047,000 after buying an additional 72,045 shares during the last quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at $294,000. Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 73.3% in the 4th quarter. Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 26,000 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $7,161,000 after purchasing an additional 11,000 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 9.9% during the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 80,568 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $22,193,000 after purchasing an additional 7,283 shares during the period. Finally, Aviva PLC increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 24.1% during the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 85,788 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $23,629,000 after purchasing an additional 16,635 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company's stock.
Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics
In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.86, for a total value of $337,028.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $3,940,865.96. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 5,648 shares of company stock valued at $1,628,433. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Analyst Ratings Changes
VRSK has been the topic of several recent research reports. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 target price on the stock. Barclays lowered Verisk Analytics from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $310.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, January 10th. 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. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $297.40.
Get Our Latest Stock Report on Verisk Analytics
Verisk Analytics Stock Performance
NASDAQ VRSK traded up $1.00 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $296.10. The company's stock had a trading volume of 149,322 shares, compared to its average volume of 873,185. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $306.67. The firm has a market cap of $41.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.19, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.88. The business's fifty day moving average price is $292.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $283.51. 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 announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Verisk Analytics announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the business services provider to buy 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 stock is undervalued.
Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.45 dividend. This is a boost 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.61%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is presently 26.87%.
Verisk Analytics Company Profile
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Free Report)
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.
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