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

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

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 75 shares during the period. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Kestra Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.36, for a total value of $348,229.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,071,832.96. This represents a 7.88% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the company’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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,937 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,980,456.16. The trade was a 30.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,363 shares of company stock valued at $2,529,187 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.5%

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $314.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $297.82 and a 200-day moving average of $290.24. The company has a market cap of $43.97 billion, a PE ratio of 49.04, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $245.01 and a one year high of $317.81.

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

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the business services provider to purchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

VRSK has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $280.00 price objective on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective 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. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.