Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) CAO Sells $1,755,314.40 in Stock

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.68, for a total value of $1,755,314.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,937 shares in the company, valued at $3,980,456.16. This represents a 30.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $309.50 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.31 billion, a PE ratio of 48.28, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $292.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $286.97. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $245.01 and a 12 month high of $312.82.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $753.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.31 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.63 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.35%.

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 shares. This buyback authorization permits the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,733,589 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,980,251,000 after buying an additional 239,483 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,210,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,435,012,000 after buying an additional 392,270 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,691,016 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,292,047,000 after buying an additional 72,045 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,811,563 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,051,300,000 after buying an additional 19,423 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at about $526,676,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price 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. Bank of America assumed coverage on Verisk Analytics in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $298.90.

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.