Nomura Holdings Inc. Has $4.82 Million Stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Nomura Holdings Inc. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 42.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 17,488 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,194 shares during the quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $4,817,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 468.8% in the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.36, for a total transaction of $348,229.44. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $4,071,832.96. This represents a 7.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.68, for a total transaction of $1,755,314.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,937 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,980,456.16. The trade was a 30.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,363 shares of company stock worth $2,529,187 over the last ninety days. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSK has been the subject of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $280.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 2.0%

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $307.36 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $245.01 and a 12 month high of $312.82. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.95, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $292.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $287.75.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $753.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.31 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. Verisk Analytics’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.63 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to purchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.59%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 26.35%.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.