Brown Advisory Inc. Has $512.19 Million Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Brown Advisory Inc. reduced its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 8.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,720,965 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 166,173 shares during the quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. owned 1.23% of Verisk Analytics worth $512,194,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at $526,676,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 36,332.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,204,468 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $358,474,000 after acquiring an additional 1,201,162 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,210,080 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,435,012,000 after acquiring an additional 392,270 shares during the period. Raiffeisen Bank International AG bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at about $70,005,000. Finally, BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at about $68,908,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.86, for a total value of $98,080.36. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 9,319 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,803,714.34. This trade represents a 3.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.06, for a total transaction of $3,649,027.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 67,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,051,406.64. The trade was a 14.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 28,825 shares of company stock valued at $8,945,180. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on VRSK shares. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report 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 assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK traded down $5.63 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $302.54. The company's stock had a trading volume of 998,573 shares, compared to its average volume of 777,944. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $257.59 and a fifty-two week high of $322.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.13. The company has a market capitalization of $42.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.30, a P/E/G ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.86. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $308.64 and a 200-day moving average of $294.87.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last released 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 33.13% and a return on equity of 396.08%. The business had revenue of $753.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $750.31 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.63 earnings per share. Verisk Analytics's revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th were paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.59%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.35%.

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.