Atria Investments Inc Sells 2,474 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Atria Investments Inc trimmed its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 12.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 17,361 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 2,474 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $4,782,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 468.8% in the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

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

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $300.48 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $286.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $279.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market cap of $42.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $217.34 and a one year high of $306.10.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.60%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is presently 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase 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 reacquire up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership 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.