Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Bought by NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC

NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 5.7% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 6,282 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 339 shares during the quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,870,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $526,676,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 36,332.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,204,468 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $358,474,000 after acquiring an additional 1,201,162 shares during the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 52.4% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,252,532 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $351,226,000 after acquiring an additional 430,719 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at $110,094,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 31,634.6% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 394,461 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $108,646,000 after purchasing an additional 393,218 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group boosted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Bank of America began coverage on Verisk Analytics in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $280.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective 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 assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $302.40.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,419 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $318.10, for a total transaction of $1,723,783.90. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 56,701 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,036,588.10. The trade was a 8.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.06, for a total value of $3,649,027.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 67,244 shares in the company, valued at $21,051,406.64. This trade represents a 14.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 24,259 shares of company stock valued at $7,553,769. 0.46% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $310.41 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $303.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $292.42. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $257.59 and a 1-year high of $322.92. 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 company has a market cap of $43.42 billion, a PE ratio of 48.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.87.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $753.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 prior year, the company posted $1.63 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be given a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 26.35%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program 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 repurchase up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are 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.