Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Acquires 72 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,407 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 72 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $663,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 8.8% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 6,183 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,657,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. PEAK6 Investments LLC bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter valued at $705,000. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 86,008 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $23,047,000 after buying an additional 1,247 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 121.8% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 83,428 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $22,355,000 after buying an additional 45,812 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Erste Asset Management GmbH purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the third quarter valued at $423,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on VRSK shares. Robert W. Baird increased their target price 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 lifted their price objective 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. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays cut Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $299.33.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In related news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was 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 owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,760,958.66. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $294.58 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $290.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $281.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.34 and a 1-year high of $306.10. The company has a market cap of $41.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $735.60 million for 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%. On average, research analysts expect 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 will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.61%. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are 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.