Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Sold by American Century Companies Inc.

American Century Companies Inc. cut its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 482,320 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 9,560 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.34% of Verisk Analytics worth $132,846,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of VRSK. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.1% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 2,258 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $605,000 after buying an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Commerce Bank grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.6% in the third quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 10,141 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,717,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.1% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,152 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $845,000 after buying an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2.2% in the third quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 2,025 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $543,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 111.5% in the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 24,681 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,614,000 after buying an additional 13,010 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VRSK has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped 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. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. 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. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $299.33.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.36, for a total transaction of $348,229.44. Following the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,071,832.96. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the sale, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $285.16 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $40.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $289.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $280.81. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.34 and a 1 year high of $306.10.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $735.60 million during 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%. On average, analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.