Pinebridge Investments L.P. Takes Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Pinebridge Investments L.P. purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 15,842 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $4,363,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of VRSK. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 8.1% in 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 last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 72,045 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,811,563 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,051,300,000 after purchasing an additional 19,423 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $526,676,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,654,826 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $455,789,000 after buying an additional 144,599 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the firm's 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 completion of 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 document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.86, for a total value of $337,028.94. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,940,865.96. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,837 shares of company stock valued at $1,121,618 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSK has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective 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. Barclays lowered Verisk Analytics from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $297.40.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ:VRSK traded up $1.73 on Wednesday, hitting $294.10. 418,191 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 771,269. The company has a market cap of $41.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.88. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $291.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $285.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $306.68.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.01. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The firm had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. As a group, analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is 26.87%.

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.