FFT Wealth Management LLC Takes $290,000 Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

FFT Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 1,054 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $290,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in VRSK. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 2.2% in the third quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 2,025 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $543,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Ascent Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,508 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $672,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 897 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $247,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.8% during the third quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 974 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $264,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Finally, Bell Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Bell Bank now owns 1,005 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $277,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $294.95, for a total value of $347,746.05. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,066,180.70. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 4,469 shares of company stock worth $1,264,818 over the last ninety days. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 3.9 %

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $288.03 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.34 and a 1-year high of $300.50. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $283.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $277.94. The company has a market capitalization of $40.67 billion, a PE ratio of 44.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.01. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The company had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $733.55 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on VRSK shares. Barclays cut Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $313.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $295.33.

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.