Wellington Management Group LLP Has $50.75 Million Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Wellington Management Group LLP cut its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 184,262 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 6,025 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP owned 0.13% of Verisk Analytics worth $50,751,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its position in 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 worth $247,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Bell Bank increased 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 worth $277,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. BSW Wealth Partners increased 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 worth $296,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Finally, Haverford Trust Co increased 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 worth $249,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on VRSK shares. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $280.00 target price on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $314.32 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $297.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $290.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $245.01 and a 1 year high of $317.81.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $753.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $750.31 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.63 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

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

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.68, for a total transaction of $1,755,314.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,937 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,980,456.16. The trade was a 30.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.86, for a total transaction of $337,028.94. Following the transaction, the director now owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,940,865.96. This trade represents a 7.88% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 8,363 shares of company stock valued at $2,529,187. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.