Burns Matteson Capital Management LLC Takes Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Burns Matteson Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,573 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $468,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.1% during the first quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 3,175 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $945,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the period. Bennett Selby Investments LP boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.1% during the first quarter. Bennett Selby Investments LP now owns 1,208 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $359,000 after buying an additional 36 shares during the period. Private Trust Co. NA boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 10.2% during the first quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 389 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $116,000 after buying an additional 36 shares during the period. Haverford Trust Co boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Haverford Trust Co now owns 903 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $249,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Finally, Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.1% during the first quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV now owns 944 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $281,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on VRSK shares. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.4%

Verisk Analytics stock traded up $1.12 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $302.60. 526,729 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 778,979. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $309.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $295.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $257.59 and a 52 week high of $322.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.33 billion, a PE ratio of 44.30, a P/E/G ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.13.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $753.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.31 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 33.13% and a return on equity of 396.08%. The business's revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.63 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th were issued a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.59%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is currently 26.35%.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In related news, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.06, for a total value of $3,649,027.36. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 67,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,051,406.64. This represents a 14.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,419 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.86, for a total transaction of $1,630,360.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 55,913 shares in the company, valued at $16,821,985.18. This trade represents a 8.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 28,825 shares of company stock valued at $8,947,730. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.

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.