Whipplewood Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 160 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $44,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 17.5% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 3,221 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $863,000 after purchasing an additional 479 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 26,695.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 31,083 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,329,000 after purchasing an additional 30,967 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 18.5% during the 3rd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 17,103 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,583,000 after purchasing an additional 2,671 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 5,273 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,413,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Advocates Investment Management raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 1,659 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $444,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays cut Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $296.91 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $284.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $278.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market cap of $41.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.32, a PEG 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 $300.50.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. Research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.61%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other 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 transaction of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,760,958.66. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,469 shares of company stock valued at $1,264,818. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.