LA Financiere DE L Echiquier Sells 10,459 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

LA Financiere DE L Echiquier reduced its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 37.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,486 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 10,459 shares during the period. LA Financiere DE L Echiquier's holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $4,177,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,523,191 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,777,279,000 after acquiring an additional 392,945 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,929,841 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,164,626,000 after purchasing an additional 182,631 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,821,265 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $731,736,000 after purchasing an additional 49,928 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 248.2% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,765,708 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $664,346,000 after purchasing an additional 2,684,234 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 1,404.8% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,992,727 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $470,762,000 after purchasing an additional 1,860,298 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on VRSK. Bank of America cut shares of Verisk Analytics from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI reiterated an "in-line" rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $252.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $235.64, for a total value of $355,109.48. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 48,860 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,513,370.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total transaction of $53,937.47. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,796 shares in the company, valued at $1,852,407.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, January 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $235.64, for a total transaction of $355,109.48. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 48,860 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,513,370.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 11,278 shares of company stock valued at $2,662,515. 1.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK traded down $1.27 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $226.38. 1,035,467 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 864,646. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $186.96 and a 1 year high of $251.98. The company's 50-day moving average is $239.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $238.15. The company has a market capitalization of $32.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.77, a PEG ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.78.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.44 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $677.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $673.56 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 305.15%. Verisk Analytics's revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.43 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics's payout ratio is presently 37.05%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 21st that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the business services provider to buy up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.