AMF Tjanstepension AB Buys Shares of 37,900 Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

AMF Tjanstepension AB bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 37,900 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $10,439,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 25.9% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 56,860 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $15,661,000 after buying an additional 11,707 shares in the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 11.6% in the 4th quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 782,819 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $231,532,000 after buying an additional 81,604 shares in the last quarter. Andra AP fonden raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 15.5% in the 4th quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 34,300 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,447,000 after buying an additional 4,600 shares in the last quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC now owns 18,935 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,215,000 after buying an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Finally, E Fund Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 30.3% in the 4th quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,011 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $554,000 after buying an additional 468 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $300.48 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.34 and a 1-year high of $306.10. 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 company has a market capitalization of $42.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $286.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $279.43.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.01. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The business had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.60%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 26.87%.

Insider Activity

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the transaction, the director now owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $3,760,958.66. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at $2,557,155.96. This trade represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 4,469 shares of company stock worth $1,264,818. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective 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. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Barclays cut Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $299.33.

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.