1,780 Shares in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Purchased by Bryce Point Capital LLC

Bryce Point Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of 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 institutional investor bought 1,780 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $490,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. Huntington National Bank boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 2,409 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $664,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 3,148 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $867,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. OV Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. OV Management LLC now owns 6,811 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,876,000 after buying an additional 511 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,811,563 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,051,300,000 after acquiring an additional 19,423 shares during the period. Finally, HighPoint Advisor Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $720,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock opened at $284.99 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $39.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.46, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $292.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $282.26. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $306.68.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.63%. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.87%.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSK has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays cut Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, 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, February 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was 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 directly owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business’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 owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $3,760,958.66. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.