Clarius Group LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Clarius Group LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 6.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,292 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 94 shares during the quarter. Clarius Group LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $309,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of VRSK. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 248.2% during the fourth 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. Citigroup Inc. lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1,404.8% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,992,727 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $470,762,000 after acquiring an additional 1,860,298 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $268,659,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.5% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 40.4% in the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,205,157 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $212,612,000 after acquiring an additional 346,785 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America downgraded Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $252.00.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total value of $375,619.75. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 50,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,514,344. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,771 shares of company stock worth $2,307,406 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK stock opened at $222.53 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $237.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $237.69. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85. The stock has a market cap of $31.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $187.86 and a 52-week high of $251.98.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted 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). The business had revenue of $677.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $673.56 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 305.15% and a net margin of 22.92%. Verisk Analytics’s revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.43 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.05%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 21st that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics 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.