Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Purchased by Van ECK Associates Corp

Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 22,174 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 955 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $5,296,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.5% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,523,191 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,777,279,000 after acquiring an additional 392,945 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 21.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,195,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $282,418,000 after purchasing an additional 211,032 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,929,841 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,164,626,000 after buying an additional 182,631 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 131.2% in the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 312,569 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $73,841,000 after buying an additional 177,391 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 22.1% during the 3rd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 920,719 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $217,511,000 after buying an additional 166,656 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total value of $375,619.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 50,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,514,344. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total value of $375,619.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 50,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,514,344. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 1.5 %

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $237.33 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $231.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $235.99. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $205.70 and a 52-week high of $251.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.28, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $704.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $699.07 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.29 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.53 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Saturday, June 15th will be paid a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 29.10%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on VRSK shares. Bank of America downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $254.31.

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.