Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Has $226.58 Million Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 2.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 822,644 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 21,494 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $226,581,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 29.5% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,081 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $298,000 after buying an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,163 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $320,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares during the last quarter. LGT Group Foundation lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. LGT Group Foundation now owns 46,070 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $12,689,000 after purchasing an additional 6,394 shares in the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 4,806 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,329,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSK has been the topic of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays lowered Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target 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 boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Six investment 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 stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $299.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $3,760,958.66. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the company’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 sale, the insider now 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 4,469 shares of company stock valued at $1,264,818 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.5 %

VRSK stock opened at $295.36 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.34 and a 1-year high of $306.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.43 billion, a PE ratio of 46.08, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $285.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $279.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.01. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The company had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.61%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management 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.