Wells Fargo & Company MN Lowers Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Wells Fargo & Company MN decreased its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 29.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 272,134 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 110,971 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN owned about 0.19% of Verisk Analytics worth $74,954,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 392,270 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,811,563 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,051,300,000 after purchasing an additional 19,423 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter worth $526,676,000. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,270,745 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $350,001,000 after buying an additional 39,544 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 52.4% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,252,532 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $351,226,000 after buying an additional 430,719 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSK has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target 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 reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on 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 investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $297.40.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $294.95, for a total transaction of $347,746.05. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,066,180.70. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at $2,557,155.96. This trade represents a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,628,433 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company's stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ:VRSK traded up $3.29 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $295.17. 113,766 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 777,772. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The company has a market cap of $41.31 billion, a PE ratio of 46.05, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.88. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $292.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $283.30. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS 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 net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. Equities analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.61%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.87%.

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

Verisk Analytics Profile

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.