Principal Securities Inc. Sells 2,351 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Principal Securities Inc. lowered its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 30.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,335 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 2,351 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,469,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 468.8% during the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 95,570 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $26,502,000 after purchasing an additional 583 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 217.1% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 22,126 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,049,000 after buying an additional 15,149 shares during the period. Finally, Marks Group Wealth Management Inc increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc now owns 11,573 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,188,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $293.30 on Wednesday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $296.94. The stock has a market cap of $41.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.76, a P/E/G ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $281.92 and a 200 day moving average of $276.50. 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 Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the company’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 $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $3,760,958.66. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 4,469 shares of company stock valued at $1,264,818. 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.