Xponance Inc. Purchases 320 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Xponance Inc. grew its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 40,819 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 320 shares during the quarter. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $11,243,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 468.8% in the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the period. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSK has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Barclays downgraded Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.7 %

VRSK stock opened at $288.93 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $288.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $280.51. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $306.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.07, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. 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 (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. Analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.62%. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is presently 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has approved 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 buy up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at $2,557,155.96. The trade was a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.36, for a total value of $348,229.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,071,832.96. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047 over the last 90 days. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.