Cetera Investment Advisers Buys 11,082 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 18.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 69,593 shares of the business services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 11,082 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers' holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $19,168,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of VRSK. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in shares of 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 valued at $1,435,012,000 after purchasing an additional 392,270 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,691,016 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,292,047,000 after purchasing an additional 72,045 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,811,563 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,051,300,000 after acquiring an additional 19,423 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $526,676,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,654,826 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $455,789,000 after purchasing an additional 144,599 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 1.9%

VRSK stock traded down $5.85 during trading on Monday, reaching $303.65. The stock had a trading volume of 990,473 shares, compared to its average volume of 765,319. The company has a market capitalization of $42.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.37, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $292.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $286.97. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $245.01 and a 1-year high of $314.17.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $750.31 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.63 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.35%.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now 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 legal 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 shares were sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total value of $88,614.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,665 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,922,507.70. This trade represents a 1.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have 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 currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on VRSK. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target 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. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday. 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 report on Thursday. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on Verisk Analytics in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $302.40.

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.