Arlington Financial Advisors LLC Acquires 400 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Arlington Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 38.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,438 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 400 shares during the quarter. Arlington Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $396,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in VRSK. FMR LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,618,971 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,237,700,000 after acquiring an additional 283,653 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2,380.6% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 272,965 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $73,144,000 after purchasing an additional 261,961 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 46.7% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 614,831 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $164,750,000 after purchasing an additional 195,700 shares during the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 158.2% in the third quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 184,806 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $49,521,000 after purchasing an additional 113,230 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,231,201 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $331,476,000 after purchasing an additional 78,376 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on VRSK. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays cut Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley boosted 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. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $293.11.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.4 %

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $293.73 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.82, a PEG ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.89. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $281.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $275.61. 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 fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $296.58.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 24.34%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $286,490.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,517,157.87. This represents a 1.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $321,642.99. Following the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $3,760,958.66. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,490 shares of company stock valued at $1,541,570 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.