Natixis Advisors LLC Has $40.85 Million Stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 10.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 148,296 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 13,810 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.11% of Verisk Analytics worth $40,845,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 283,653 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 52.4% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,252,532 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $351,226,000 after purchasing an additional 430,719 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,231,201 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $331,476,000 after purchasing an additional 78,376 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 822,644 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $226,581,000 after purchasing an additional 21,494 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 11.6% in the 4th quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 782,819 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $231,532,000 after purchasing an additional 81,604 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $294.95, for a total value of $347,746.05. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $4,066,180.70. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. The trade was a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047 in the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.3 %

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $288.58 on Monday. 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, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.34 and a 52-week high of $306.10. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $287.95 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $280.27. The firm has a market cap of $40.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.02, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $733.55 million. Equities analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business 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. 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%. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 26.87%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on VRSK shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $299.33.

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.