NewEdge Advisors LLC Acquires 481 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 13.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,188 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 481 shares during the quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,153,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 468.8% in the 4th 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 during the period. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on VRSK shares. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target 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. Barclays cut 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. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $280.00 target price on the stock. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. One investment 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 data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $297.40.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total transaction of $88,614.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,665 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,922,507.70. This represents a 1.77 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.86, for a total transaction of $337,028.94. Following the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,940,865.96. 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 3,837 shares of company stock worth $1,121,618. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.6 %

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $288.24 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $291.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $284.58. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $217.34 and a one year high of $306.68. The firm has a market cap of $40.34 billion, a PE ratio of 44.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $733.55 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.62%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has approved a share repurchase 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.