Treasurer of the State of North Carolina Raises Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 38.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 88,365 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,340 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $24,338,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in VRSK. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 1,213 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $334,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 897 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $247,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.8% during the third quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 974 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $264,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Bell Bank raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Bell Bank now owns 1,005 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $277,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BSW Wealth Partners lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 1,076 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $296,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on VRSK shares. Barclays downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, 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 report on Thursday, December 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $297.40.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $285.78 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.58, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.88. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.34 and a 1 year high of $306.68. 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’s 50 day moving average is $292.24 and its 200-day moving average is $282.99.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.87%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the company’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 approximately $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $294.95, for a total transaction of $347,746.05. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 5,648 shares of company stock valued at $1,628,433 over the last 90 days. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.