National Bank of Canada FI Has $38.98 Million Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 104.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 163,791 shares of the business services provider's stock after buying an additional 83,732 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI owned about 0.11% of Verisk Analytics worth $38,978,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 392,945 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings 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 valued at $1,164,626,000 after purchasing an additional 182,631 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,661,558 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $392,526,000 after purchasing an additional 89,920 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 21.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,195,471 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $282,418,000 after purchasing an additional 211,032 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.1% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,048,905 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $247,793,000 after purchasing an additional 60,228 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on VRSK shares. Bank of America lowered Verisk Analytics from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their target price for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI reissued an "in-line" rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $254.31.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total transaction of $375,619.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 50,208 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,514,344. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total transaction of $375,619.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 50,208 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,514,344. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

NASDAQ VRSK traded up $4.53 on Monday, reaching $241.86. 892,941 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 906,348. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $231.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $236.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94. The company has a market cap of $34.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.79. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $209.02 and a 12 month high of $251.98.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $704.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $699.07 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 268.19% and a net margin of 28.45%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.29 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. Verisk Analytics's payout ratio is currently 29.10%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 21st that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to buy up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.