Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Stock Holdings Lifted by WBI Investments LLC

WBI Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 25.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 21,493 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,425 shares during the period. Verisk Analytics comprises approximately 1.0% of WBI Investments LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 20th largest position. WBI Investments LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $5,134,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. King Luther Capital Management Corp lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 166,615 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $39,798,000 after buying an additional 11,445 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 25.6% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 221 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd now owns 32,696 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,810,000 after purchasing an additional 1,189 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at $841,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on VRSK shares. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.31.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,304 shares of company stock worth $2,648,390 in the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock traded up $2.14 on Wednesday, reaching $253.64. 705,912 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 874,781. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $214.67 and a 52 week high of $254.08. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $233.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $237.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The company has a market capitalization of $36.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.79.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 268.19% and a net margin of 28.45%. The firm had revenue of $704.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $699.07 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.29 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 15th will be paid a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.10%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 21st that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the business services provider to purchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.