Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Sold by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 141,781 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,011 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.10% of Verisk Analytics worth $39,051,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 8.3% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 6,730 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,803,000 after purchasing an additional 513 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the third quarter worth approximately $34,000. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 7.6% during the third quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 3,815 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,022,000 after purchasing an additional 270 shares in the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 8.4% during the third quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,245 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $334,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Haverford Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the third quarter worth approximately $230,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSK has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, 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. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $289.50 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $287.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $279.98. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.34 and a 1-year high of $306.10. 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 firm has a market cap of $40.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its 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 for 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%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is presently 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase 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 reacquire up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,557,155.96. The trade was a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics 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 transaction, the director now directly 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. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.