FourThought Financial Partners LLC Invests $203,000 in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

FourThought Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 737 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $203,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 468.8% in the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Kestra Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

VRSK stock opened at $288.03 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $283.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $277.94. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $217.34 and a 12-month high of $300.50. The firm has a market cap of $40.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.93, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. 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 (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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.01. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The company had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $733.55 million. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders 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 a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.34%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan 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 reacquire up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on VRSK shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $313.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $295.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This trade represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 4,469 shares of company stock worth $1,264,818 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

About Verisk Analytics

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.