Nomura Holdings Inc. Has $4.82 Million Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Nomura Holdings Inc. grew its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 42.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,488 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,194 shares during the quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $4,817,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of VRSK. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 1,213 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $334,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 897 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $247,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Bell Bank lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Bell Bank now owns 1,005 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $277,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. BSW Wealth Partners boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 1,076 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $296,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Haverford Trust Co boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Haverford Trust Co now owns 903 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $249,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $280.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 2.0%

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $307.36 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $292.76 and a 200-day moving average of $287.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $245.01 and a 52 week high of $312.82.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.05. The business 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%. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.63 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.59%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 26.35%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to purchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.68, for a total value of $1,755,314.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,937 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,980,456.16. The trade was a 30.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.86, for a total value of $337,028.94. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,940,865.96. The trade was a 7.88% 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 in the last ninety days. 0.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.