Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Bought by Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd.

Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 8.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 232,529 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 17,519 shares during the quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $64,243,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $3,760,958.66. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,648 shares of company stock valued at $1,613,047 in the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSK has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays downgraded Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets raised 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $294.58 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $290.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $281.34. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.34 and a 1-year high of $306.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The company has a market cap of $41.32 billion, a PE ratio of 45.96, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.01. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The business had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. Sell-side 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 stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the business services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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 paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.61%. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.