Shell Asset Management Co. Sells 147 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Shell Asset Management Co. lessened its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,491 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 147 shares during the quarter. Shell Asset Management Co.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $962,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 22,334 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,151,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 18.7% during the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,094,817 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $301,544,000 after acquiring an additional 172,767 shares in the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 59,611 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $16,419,000 after acquiring an additional 3,355 shares in the last quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $70,005,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 19.2% in the 4th quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 180,647 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $49,756,000 after purchasing an additional 29,037 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.36, for a total value of $348,229.44. Following the transaction, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,071,832.96. This represents a 7.88% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total value of $88,614.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 16,665 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,922,507.70. This trade represents a 1.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,363 shares of company stock valued at $2,529,187 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSK has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Bank of America began 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. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. One 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $309.57 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $293.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $288.15. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $245.01 and a fifty-two week high of $312.82. The company has a market cap of $43.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.05. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The company had revenue of $753.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.31 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.63 earnings per share. Verisk Analytics’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be given a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.35%.

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.