D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. Has $163.70 Million Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 65.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 594,356 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 235,642 shares during the period. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $163,703,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 468.8% in the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total value of $88,614.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 16,665 shares in the company, valued at $4,922,507.70. The trade was a 1.77 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.36, for a total transaction of $348,229.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,071,832.96. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 3,837 shares of company stock worth $1,121,618 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on VRSK. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays lowered Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective 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. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $280.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $297.40.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

VRSK opened at $309.90 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $291.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $286.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The company has a market cap of $43.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $243.28 and a 52-week high of $312.62.

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

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the business services provider to purchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.58%. 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.