Plato Investment Management Ltd Purchases 151 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Plato Investment Management Ltd increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,806 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the period. Plato Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,329,000 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 the stock. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 31,634.6% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 394,461 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $108,646,000 after purchasing an additional 393,218 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,618,971 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,237,700,000 after purchasing an additional 283,653 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 2,380.6% during the 3rd 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. Empower Advisory Group LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 29,469.0% during the 4th quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 233,004 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $64,176,000 after purchasing an additional 232,216 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 46.7% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 614,831 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $164,750,000 after acquiring an additional 195,700 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business’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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,557,155.96. The trade was a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $294.95, for a total value of $347,746.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,066,180.70. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 4,469 shares of company stock valued at $1,264,818 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 1.5 %

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $301.33 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The firm has a market cap of $42.55 billion, a PE ratio of 47.01, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $284.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $278.67. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.34 and a 12 month high of $302.25.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. Analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.60%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 26.87%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price 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. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.33.

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.