Freedom Investment Management Inc. Purchases 79 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Freedom Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,343 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 79 shares during the quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $921,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,210,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,435,012,000 after buying an additional 392,270 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 72,045 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.5% during 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 acquiring an additional 19,423 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $526,676,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,654,826 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $455,789,000 after purchasing an additional 144,599 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.86, for a total transaction of $337,028.94. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $3,940,865.96. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total value of $88,614.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 16,665 shares in the company, valued at $4,922,507.70. This represents a 1.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 3,837 shares of company stock worth $1,121,618. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays downgraded Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report 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 price objective on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $297.40.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

VRSK stock opened at $293.02 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.34 and a 1-year high of $306.68. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The firm has a market cap of $41.01 billion, a PE ratio of 45.71, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.88. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $292.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $284.11.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $733.55 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.45 dividend. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.61%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.87%.

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.