HighPoint Advisor Group LLC Buys Shares of 2,153 Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,153 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $499,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Westpac Banking Corp boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 94.8% in the fourth quarter. Westpac Banking Corp now owns 1,243 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $297,000 after acquiring an additional 605 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 346,646 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $82,800,000 after acquiring an additional 34,077 shares in the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 225.5% in the fourth quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 205,110 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $48,993,000 after acquiring an additional 142,088 shares in the last quarter. Pinebridge Investments L.P. boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. Pinebridge Investments L.P. now owns 8,231 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,966,000 after acquiring an additional 3,219 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fenimore Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 421.9% in the fourth quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc. now owns 75,404 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $18,011,000 after acquiring an additional 60,957 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction 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 owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction 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 owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Monday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.31, for a total transaction of $52,462.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,356,444.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 9,746 shares of company stock valued at $2,285,415. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on VRSK. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. 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, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $254.31.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock opened at $268.80 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $244.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $240.54. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $215.32 and a 1 year high of $270.38. The stock has a market cap of $38.35 billion, a PE ratio of 50.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.83.

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

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company 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 $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 29.10%.

Verisk Analytics 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.