Franklin Resources Inc. Raises Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,270,745 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 39,544 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. owned about 0.90% of Verisk Analytics worth $350,001,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in VRSK. 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 period. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VRSK has been the topic of several research reports. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley raised 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 reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased 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. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $299.33.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director now directly 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at $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. Insiders sold a total of 5,648 shares of company stock valued at $1,613,047 over the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 1.0 %

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $297.62 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $41.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.43, a price-to-earnings-growth 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. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $291.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $281.66.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to purchase up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

About Verisk Analytics

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.