Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich Grows Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 542,737 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 17,775 shares during the quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich owned about 0.37% of Verisk Analytics worth $129,638,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 346,646 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $82,800,000 after acquiring an additional 34,077 shares during the last quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 421.9% during the fourth quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc. now owns 75,404 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $18,011,000 after acquiring an additional 60,957 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 522,386 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $124,777,000 after acquiring an additional 28,008 shares during the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 36.2% during the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 1,332 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $315,000 after acquiring an additional 354 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 6.0% during the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 558,840 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $132,020,000 after acquiring an additional 31,855 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSK has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America lowered Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total transaction of $53,937.47. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 7,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,852,407.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total transaction of $53,937.47. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 7,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,852,407.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,531 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $236.12, for a total value of $361,499.72. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 50,973 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,035,744.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952 in the last 90 days. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ VRSK traded up $0.54 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $222.79. 1,052,563 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 877,722. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $187.86 and a 1-year high of $251.98. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $233.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $236.82. 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 company has a market cap of $31.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.05%.

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 reacquire up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.