Farther Finance Advisors LLC Sells 447 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Farther Finance Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 25.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,319 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 447 shares during the quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $363,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 468.8% in the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on VRSK shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Barclays cut Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $291.01 on Tuesday. 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 $40.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $217.34 and a one year high of $306.10. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $288.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $280.40.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $733.55 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,760,958.66. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.