R Squared Ltd Purchases New Shares in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 390 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $107,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of VRSK. BSW Wealth Partners lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 1,076 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $296,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 803 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $224,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 23.5% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 34,149 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $9,406,000 after buying an additional 6,501 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 19.1% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 42,774 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $11,781,000 after buying an additional 6,866 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth approximately $973,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on VRSK. Barclays cut shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $293.11.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock opened at $288.08 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.94, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.88. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $296.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $281.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $275.11.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $722.19 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.52 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.34%.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total value of $280,710.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,923,385.73. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $57,298.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,608 shares in the company, valued at $4,471,535.92. The trade was a 1.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,490 shares of company stock worth $1,541,570 in the last ninety days. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.