Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Sells 4,046 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC trimmed its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 103,298 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 4,046 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $28,452,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of VRSK. FMR LLC grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,618,971 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,237,700,000 after buying an additional 283,653 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 2,380.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 272,965 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $73,144,000 after buying an additional 261,961 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 46.7% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 614,831 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $164,750,000 after buying an additional 195,700 shares in the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 158.2% during the 3rd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 184,806 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $49,521,000 after purchasing an additional 113,230 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,618,266 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $436,204,000 after purchasing an additional 111,364 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on VRSK. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays downgraded shares of 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. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $293.11.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction 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 represents a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 5,490 shares of company stock valued at $1,541,570. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK stock opened at $278.93 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $39.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.51, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.88. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $281.53 and its 200 day moving average is $274.93. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $296.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The firm had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.19 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.52 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

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.