Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Sold by Ameriprise Financial Inc.

Ameriprise Financial Inc. decreased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 193,641 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 3,975 shares during the quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.14% of Verisk Analytics worth $53,330,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 468.8% during the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on VRSK. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $302.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the business's 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,937 shares in the company, valued at $3,980,456.16. The trade was a 30.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,071,832.96. This represents a 7.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,363 shares of company stock worth $2,529,187 over the last ninety days. 0.46% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Verisk Analytics stock traded down $0.30 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $301.27. 835,398 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 768,453. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $292.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $287.34. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $245.01 and a 1 year high of $312.82. The company has a market capitalization of $42.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.05. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The business had revenue of $753.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.31 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.63 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.60%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is currently 26.35%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase 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 reacquire up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company's board 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.