David J. Grover Sells 6,481 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Stock

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK opened at $235.73 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $186.96 and a 12-month high of $251.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.99, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.79. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $241.38 and a 200-day moving average price of $239.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its earnings results 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). Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 305.15% and a net margin of 22.92%. The firm had revenue of $677.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $673.56 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.43 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a $0.39 dividend. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.05%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has initiated a share buyback 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 purchase up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of VRSK. Morgan Stanley raised 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 during the period. Citigroup Inc. raised its holdings 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. Norges Bank bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth $374,530,000. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 90.5% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,141,516 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $272,663,000 after purchasing an additional 542,432 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 35.4% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 1,865,533 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $445,601,000 after purchasing an additional 487,335 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSK has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America lowered Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $253.00 price objective (up from $252.00) on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Friday, December 8th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $252.00.

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.