Sentry Investment Management LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Sentry Investment Management LLC lowered its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 14.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 535 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 87 shares during the period. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $147,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised 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 worth $25,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Kestra Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $313.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Barclays downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $295.33.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 3.9 %

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $288.03 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.34 and a 12 month high of $300.50. The stock has a market cap of $40.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.93, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $283.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $277.94.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $733.55 million. On average, research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.62%. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.34%.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $294.95, for a total transaction of $347,746.05. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $4,066,180.70. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 4,469 shares of company stock valued at $1,264,818 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.