Chilton Investment Co. Inc. Decreases Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Chilton Investment Co. Inc. cut its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 6.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,717 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 121 shares during the period. Chilton Investment Co. Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $410,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. UBS Group AG raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 232,991 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $55,042,000 after buying an additional 20,837 shares during the last quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 11.1% during the 3rd quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 10,450 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,469,000 after buying an additional 1,045 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 23.6% during the 3rd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 24,574 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,805,000 after buying an additional 4,696 shares during the last quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 506.5% during the 3rd quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 188 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. Finally, E Fund Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 17.8% in the 3rd quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,596 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $377,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $263.56 on Thursday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $215.32 and a 52-week high of $265.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.60 billion, a PE ratio of 49.17, a PEG ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $240.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $239.64.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 268.19% and a net margin of 28.45%. The business had revenue of $704.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $699.07 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.29 EPS. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 21st that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to buy up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.10%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,546 shares of company stock valued at $2,232,953 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $254.31.

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.