Nordea Investment Management AB Sells 22,657 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Nordea Investment Management AB reduced its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 667,257 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 22,657 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $183,749,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Marshall Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Marshall Financial Group LLC now owns 4,932 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,322,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1.5% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,586 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $693,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Ascent Group LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1.8% during the second quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,465 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $664,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 5,109 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,369,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 2,025 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $543,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total value of $280,710.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,163 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,923,385.73. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $57,298.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,608 shares in the company, valued at $4,471,535.92. This trade represents a 1.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,400 shares of company stock worth $678,764. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSK has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays boosted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $289.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $273.00 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $38.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.59, a P/E/G ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.88. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $282.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $274.49. 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 1 year low of $217.34 and a 1 year high of $296.58.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.19 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.52 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.34%.

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.