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

Wellington Management Group LLP lessened its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 184,262 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 6,025 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $50,751,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 468.8% in the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on VRSK shares. Barclays cut Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $299.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics 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 sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,760,958.66. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction 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 company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock opened at $284.99 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.34 and a 12 month high of $306.68. 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 $39.98 billion, a PE ratio of 44.46, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.88. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $292.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $282.37.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $733.55 million. On average, research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given 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 was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.63%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in 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 typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is 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.