Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Position Decreased by Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC

Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 6.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,131 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 135 shares during the period. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $509,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,523,191 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,777,279,000 after buying an additional 392,945 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 3.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,929,841 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,164,626,000 after buying an additional 182,631 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 5.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,661,558 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $392,526,000 after buying an additional 89,920 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in 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 valued at $282,418,000 after buying an additional 211,032 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 6.1% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,048,905 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $247,793,000 after buying an additional 60,228 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on VRSK shares. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Bank of America lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. 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, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $254.31.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $241.86 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $231.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $236.00. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $209.02 and a 52 week high of $251.98. The company has a market capitalization of $34.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 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 company had revenue of $704.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $699.07 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.29 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.10%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total transaction of $375,619.75. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 50,208 shares in the company, valued at $12,514,344. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total transaction of $375,619.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 50,208 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,514,344. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.