Jones Financial Companies Lllp Boosts Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 33.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 11,872 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,999 shares during the quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $3,270,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK stock opened at $296.89 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $285.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $279.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.32, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.34 and a 1 year high of $306.10.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.01. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The firm had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $733.55 million. Analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to purchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 26.87%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $3,760,958.66. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 4,469 shares of company stock worth $1,264,818. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on VRSK. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Barclays lowered Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $299.33.

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.