OneAscent Wealth Management LLC Has $210,000 Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

OneAscent Wealth Management LLC cut its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 24.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 761 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 249 shares during the quarter. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $210,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 468.8% during the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,071,832.96. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. The trade was a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 5,648 shares of company stock valued at $1,613,047. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on VRSK shares. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of VRSK opened at $294.58 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $306.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.96, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $290.81 and a 200-day moving average of $281.39.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.01. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The firm 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 authorized 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.45 dividend. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.61%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 26.87%.

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.