1,615 Shares in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Bought by Triglav Skladi D.O.O.

Triglav Skladi D.O.O. bought a new position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 1,615 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $445,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 8.1% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,691,016 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,292,047,000 after acquiring an additional 72,045 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 19,423 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth $526,676,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,654,826 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $455,789,000 after acquiring an additional 144,599 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on VRSK shares. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced 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 price objective on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on Verisk Analytics in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $280.00 price objective for the company. One research 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $309.57 on Monday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $245.01 and a 52 week high of $312.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.30 billion, a PE ratio of 48.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $293.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $288.24.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.05. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The firm had revenue of $753.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $750.31 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.63 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 26.35%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.68, for a total transaction of $1,755,314.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,937 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,980,456.16. The trade was a 30.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.36, for a total transaction of $348,229.44. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,071,832.96. The trade was a 7.88% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 8,363 shares of company stock worth $2,529,187. Insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.