OV Management LLC Has $1.88 Million Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

OV Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 8.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,811 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 511 shares during the quarter. OV Management LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,876,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,210,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,435,012,000 after acquiring an additional 392,270 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,811,563 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,051,300,000 after purchasing an additional 19,423 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $526,676,000. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,270,745 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $350,001,000 after buying an additional 39,544 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 52.4% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,252,532 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $351,226,000 after acquiring an additional 430,719 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $3,760,958.66. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 5,648 shares of company stock valued at $1,613,047. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $297.62 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $291.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $281.66. 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 firm has a market cap of $41.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $306.10.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced 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. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The company had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. Equities research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to purchase 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.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.60%. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.87%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on VRSK shares. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays downgraded 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, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price 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.