Gemmer Asset Management LLC Purchases Shares of 727 Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Gemmer Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 727 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $200,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the third quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $50,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 101.5% during the 3rd quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 276 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $74,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter valued at $79,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In related news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $57,298.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,471,535.92. This represents 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 worth $946,141 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on VRSK shares. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays cut Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $293.11.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK opened at $278.55 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $39.33 billion, a PE ratio of 43.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.88. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.34 and a 52-week high of $296.58. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $282.19 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $274.80. 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 (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The business had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $722.19 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.52 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

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

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.