Parnassus Investments LLC Sells 129,644 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Parnassus Investments LLC lowered its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 6.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,977,559 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 129,644 shares during the quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $544,679,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 468.8% in the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. 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 report on Thursday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. 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 data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $299.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.36, for a total value of $348,229.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,071,832.96. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 5,648 shares of company stock valued at $1,613,047. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.5 %

VRSK stock opened at $289.50 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $287.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $279.98. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $306.10. 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 company has a market cap of $40.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly 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 return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The business had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. 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 company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to purchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is 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.