Appleton Partners Inc. MA Reduces Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. $VRSK

Appleton Partners Inc. MA cut its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 42,724 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,413 shares during the quarter. Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $13,309,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of VRSK. NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter valued at about $60,000. Procyon Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% during the 1st quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 1,689 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $503,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 20.9% during the 1st quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 2,549 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $744,000 after acquiring an additional 440 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 9,779 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,910,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares during the period. Finally, Bennett Selby Investments LP boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Bennett Selby Investments LP now owns 1,208 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $359,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. UBS Group dropped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $340.00 to $334.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $311.00.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

VRSK stock opened at $249.04 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $34.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 0.85. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $239.83 and a 1 year high of $322.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34, a current ratio of 1.53 and a quick ratio of 1.53. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $262.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $288.12.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.77 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $772.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $767.91 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 460.89% and a net margin of 30.67%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.74 EPS. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th were paid a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 15th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.73%.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,420 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.00, for a total value of $1,436,300.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 54,337 shares in the company, valued at $14,399,305. This trade represents a 9.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.01, for a total value of $294,811.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 78,907 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,147,865.07. This trade represents a 1.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 8,520 shares of company stock valued at $2,273,891. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

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.