CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC Sells 271 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC reduced its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 9,337 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 271 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $2,618,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 953,753 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $262,692,000 after purchasing an additional 34,826 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at $11,964,000. Allstate Corp purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $1,159,000. Maridea Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth $299,000. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 2,407 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $663,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were 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 directly owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This trade represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,648 shares of company stock valued at $1,613,047 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on VRSK. 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 research note on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective 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. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company 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 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, 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 research report on Thursday, February 27th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $299.71 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $291.97 and a 200 day moving average of $281.99. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $42.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. As a group, research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.45 dividend. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 26.87%.

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.