Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Sold by UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp

UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp lessened its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 54.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,822 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 2,213 shares during the period. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $502,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of VRSK. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 468.8% during the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This trade represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, 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 Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSK has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective 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. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price 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. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Barclays lowered 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 report on Friday, January 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $292.03 on Thursday. 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 50 day moving average price of $290.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $281.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.56, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The firm had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. Equities research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan 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 repurchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.45 dividend. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.62%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.87%.

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.