Wolf Group Capital Advisors Takes Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Wolf Group Capital Advisors purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 923 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $275,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Louisbourg Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Kestra Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6,050.0% in the 4th quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 123 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 121 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Bank of America assumed coverage on Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $280.00 price objective for the company. 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 report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $306.27 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.13, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.27. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $304.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $292.70. The company has a market capitalization of $42.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.84, a PEG ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 0.87. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $257.59 and a fifty-two week high of $322.92.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $753.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.31 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 396.08% and a net margin of 33.13%. Verisk Analytics’s revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.63 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

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

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.06, for a total transaction of $3,649,027.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 67,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,051,406.64. This trade represents a 14.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.68, for a total value of $1,755,314.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,937 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,980,456.16. The trade was a 30.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 24,259 shares of company stock valued at $7,553,769. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

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.