Teacher Retirement System of Texas Buys 7,429 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 12.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 68,997 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,429 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $19,004,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of VRSK. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.1% during the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 2,258 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $605,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 384.3% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 27,881 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,471,000 after buying an additional 22,124 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2.0% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 45,153 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $12,099,000 after buying an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. Commerce Bank grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.6% during the third quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 10,141 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,717,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the third quarter valued at approximately $7,441,000. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.9 %

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $285.16 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $289.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $280.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The firm has a market cap of $40.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.49, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $306.10.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its 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 company had revenue of $735.60 million during 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 forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the business services provider to purchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.87%.

Insider Activity

In other news, 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $321,642.99. Following the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on VRSK. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on 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 Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays cut Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock 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 given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.