Ballentine Partners LLC Acquires 724 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Ballentine Partners LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 9.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,275 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 724 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,951,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Westpac Banking Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 94.8% during the 4th quarter. Westpac Banking Corp now owns 1,243 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $297,000 after buying an additional 605 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 34,077 shares during the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 142,088 shares during the last quarter. Pinebridge Investments L.P. increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. Pinebridge Investments L.P. now owns 8,231 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,966,000 after purchasing an additional 3,219 shares during the period. Finally, Fenimore Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 421.9% during the 4th quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc. now owns 75,404 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $18,011,000 after purchasing an additional 60,957 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSK has been the topic of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Evercore ISI reiterated 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. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $254.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of Verisk Analytics 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.31, for a total value of $52,462.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 16,608 shares in the company, valued at $4,356,444.48. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the business’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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 9,746 shares of company stock worth $2,285,415. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.5 %

VRSK stock traded up $1.44 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $271.76. 14,295 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 858,945. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $246.12 and its 200 day moving average price is $241.01. The stock has a market cap of $38.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.83. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $215.32 and a fifty-two week high of $271.76.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 28.45% and a return on equity of 268.19%. The firm had revenue of $704.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $699.07 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.29 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 15th will be paid a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.57%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.10%.

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.