Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Purchased by Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC

Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 7.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,743 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 126 shares during the period. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $480,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 100.8% during the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 1,982 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $534,000 after acquiring an additional 995 shares during the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 59.0% in the 2nd quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,043 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $551,000 after purchasing an additional 758 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.7% during the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 14,344 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,866,000 after purchasing an additional 906 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 219.5% in the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 12,738 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,434,000 after purchasing an additional 8,751 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 40.9% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 14,170 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,810,000 after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSK has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Barclays downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $293.11.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $286,490.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 54,163 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,517,157.87. This represents a 1.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $57,298.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,471,535.92. The trade was a 1.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,379 shares of company stock valued at $946,141 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK stock traded up $0.51 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $278.98. The stock had a trading volume of 125,951 shares, compared to its average volume of 795,892. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $282.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $274.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.39 billion, a PE ratio of 43.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $296.58.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $722.19 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.52 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.56%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

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.