RIA Advisory Group LLC Purchases New Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

RIA Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 1,092 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $261,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% in the 3rd 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 purchasing an additional 392,945 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,929,841 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,164,626,000 after purchasing an additional 182,631 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,821,265 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $731,736,000 after purchasing an additional 49,928 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 248.2% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,765,708 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $664,346,000 after purchasing an additional 2,684,234 shares during the period. Finally, Citigroup Inc. boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1,404.8% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,992,727 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $470,762,000 after purchasing an additional 1,860,298 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly 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 available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,829,348.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VRSK has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $252.00.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK traded down $0.81 on Friday, hitting $222.52. The company had a trading volume of 714,302 shares, compared to its average volume of 873,905. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.86, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $235.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $237.26. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $187.86 and a 52 week high of $251.98.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.44 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $677.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $673.56 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 305.15%. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.43 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.39 dividend. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.05%.

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.