Stephens Investment Management Group LLC Sells 4,666 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Stephens Investment Management Group LLC decreased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 321,477 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 4,666 shares during the quarter. Verisk Analytics comprises 1.2% of Stephens Investment Management Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC owned 0.23% of Verisk Analytics worth $88,544,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of VRSK. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter valued at about $50,000. Crews Bank & Trust bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $55,000. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 101.5% in the third quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 276 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSK has been the subject of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays lowered Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $293.11.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $293.73 on Friday. 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, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $296.58. The stock has a market cap of $41.48 billion, a PE ratio of 45.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $281.33 and a 200-day moving average of $275.71.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 24.34%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 5,490 shares of company stock worth $1,541,570. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Verisk Analytics

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.