OFI Invest Asset Management Acquires Shares of 2,888 Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 2,888 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $768,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 1,213 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $334,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 2,025 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $543,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. Ascent Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,508 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $672,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 897 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $247,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. Finally, Rehmann Capital Advisory Group lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 974 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $264,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $3,760,958.66. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the sale, the insider now owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This trade represents a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,469 shares of company stock worth $1,264,818. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $300.48 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.34 and a 52-week high of $306.10. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $286.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $279.50. The stock has a market cap of $42.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89.

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

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.45 dividend. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 26.87%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSK has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.33.

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.