Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC Has $35.55 Million Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 30.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 129,058 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 55,748 shares during the period. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC owned about 0.09% of Verisk Analytics worth $35,546,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 1,213 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $334,000 after buying an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 897 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $247,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. Bell Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Bell Bank now owns 1,005 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $277,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. BSW Wealth Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 1,076 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $296,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the period. Finally, Haverford Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Haverford Trust Co now owns 903 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $249,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSK has been the subject of a number of 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 report on Thursday, February 27th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. BMO Capital Markets lifted 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, Bank of America began coverage on Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $302.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.68, for a total transaction of $1,755,314.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,937 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,980,456.16. The trade was a 30.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $4,922,507.70. The trade was a 1.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 8,363 shares of company stock valued at $2,529,187. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $313.10 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.85, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $245.01 and a 1-year high of $314.65. 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 business has a 50-day moving average price of $294.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $288.69.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $753.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $750.31 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.63 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.57%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.35%.

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

Verisk Analytics 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.