KCM Investment Advisors LLC Has $1.03 Million Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

KCM Investment Advisors LLC decreased its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 2.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,736 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. KCM Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,029,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of VRSK. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 468.8% in the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,648 shares of company stock valued at $1,613,047 in the last 90 days. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock opened at $284.99 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.46, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.88. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $292.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $282.37. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.34 and a 1-year high of $306.68.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. On average, equities analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 26.87%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VRSK has been the topic of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Barclays lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.33.

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.