Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) 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 value of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link.
Verisk Analytics Trading Up 1.2 %
VRSK opened at $233.93 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $33.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.79. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $241.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $239.04. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $184.04 and a 52 week high of $251.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85.
Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.44 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $677.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $673.56 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 305.15%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.43 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.
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Verisk Analytics announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 21st that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to purchase up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.
Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 14th. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.05%.
Institutional Trading of Verisk Analytics
Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 2,684,234 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1,404.8% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,992,727 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $470,762,000 after acquiring an additional 1,860,298 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at $374,530,000. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 90.5% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,141,516 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $272,663,000 after acquiring an additional 542,432 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 35.4% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 1,865,533 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $445,601,000 after acquiring an additional 487,335 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analyst Ratings Changes
VRSK has been the subject of a number of research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a "hold" rating and set a $253.00 price target (up previously from $252.00) on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Friday, December 8th. Evercore ISI reissued an "in-line" rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Bank of America lowered Verisk Analytics from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price target for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $252.00.
Get Our Latest Research Report on VRSK
Verisk Analytics Company Profile
(
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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.
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