Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Purchased by Telemus Capital LLC

Telemus Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 86.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,578 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 731 shares during the period. Telemus Capital LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $377,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of VRSK. CVA Family Office LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 150 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter valued at about $39,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 506.5% in the 3rd quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 188 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter valued at about $50,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK opened at $223.17 on Tuesday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $187.86 and a twelve month high of $251.98. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $234.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $237.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.01, 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.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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). Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 305.15% and a net margin of 22.92%. The company had revenue of $677.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $673.56 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.43 earnings per share. Verisk Analytics’s revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

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

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 21st that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on VRSK. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America cut shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction 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 sale, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at $11,528,824.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952 in the last ninety days. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.