Royal Bank of Canada Purchases 172,767 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 18.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,094,817 shares of the business services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 172,767 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned 0.78% of Verisk Analytics worth $301,544,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 59,611 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $16,419,000 after acquiring an additional 3,355 shares during the period. Raiffeisen Bank International AG bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at about $70,005,000. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 19.2% in the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 180,647 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $49,756,000 after buying an additional 29,037 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 32.4% during the fourth quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 17,060 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $4,699,000 after buying an additional 4,174 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mufg Securities Americas Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth approximately $574,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on VRSK shares. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Bank of America began coverage on Verisk Analytics in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. 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 raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of VRSK stock traded down $0.77 on Wednesday, reaching $312.33. The company had a trading volume of 566,242 shares, compared to its average volume of 769,236. The stock has a market cap of $43.69 billion, a PE ratio of 48.73, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50-day moving average of $294.14 and a 200-day moving average of $288.69. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $245.01 and a 12 month high of $317.09.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $753.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $750.31 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.63 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

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 paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. 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 presently 26.35%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to purchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total transaction of $88,614.00. Following the sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the company'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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,937 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,980,456.16. This trade represents a 30.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 8,363 shares of company stock worth $2,529,187. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.

Verisk Analytics 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.