899 Shares in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Purchased by Cary Street Partners Financial LLC

Cary Street Partners Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 899 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $248,000.

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

Insider Activity

In related 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 value of $348,229.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,071,832.96. This trade represents a 7.88% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total value of $88,614.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 16,665 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,922,507.70. The trade was a 1.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,363 shares of company stock worth $2,529,187 over the last three months. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on VRSK. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target 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. Bank of America started coverage on Verisk Analytics in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 price target for the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price 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. UBS Group lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.1%

VRSK stock traded down $0.30 on Wednesday, reaching $301.27. 835,398 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 768,453. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $292.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $287.34. The company has a market cap of $42.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $245.01 and a one year high of $312.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick 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 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.31 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.63 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase 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 purchase up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued 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 dividend yield of 0.60%. Verisk Analytics's payout ratio is presently 26.35%.

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.