Dearborn Partners LLC Invests $390,000 in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Key Points

• Dearborn Partners LLC has acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc., purchasing 1,311 shares valued at approximately $390,000 during the first quarter.
• Verisk Analytics reported an EPS of $1.88 that exceeded analyst expectations, alongside a 7.8% year-over-year revenue increase.
• The firm announced a quarterly dividend of $0.45 payable on September 30, representing an annual yield of 0.65%.

Dearborn Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 1,311 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $390,000.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Louisbourg Investments Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Global Financial Private Client LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 966.7% during the 1st quarter. Global Financial Private Client LLC now owns 128 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at $39,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter valued at $48,000. Finally, GW&K Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 186.7% during the 1st quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 172 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSK has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $302.30.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 2.4%

NASDAQ VRSK traded down $6.82 during trading on Friday, hitting $271.89. The company had a trading volume of 1,544,019 shares, compared to its average volume of 983,088. The company has a current ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $259.22 and a one year high of $322.92. The company has a market cap of $37.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.83. The company's fifty day moving average is $305.41 and its 200-day moving average is $297.25.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 30.67% and a return on equity of 460.89%. The business had revenue of $772.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $767.91 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.74 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is 27.73%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.68, for a total value of $1,755,314.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 12,937 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,980,456.16. This represents a 30.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.06, for a total transaction of $3,649,027.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 67,244 shares in the company, valued at $21,051,406.64. This represents a 14.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 28,825 shares of company stock worth $8,947,730. Company insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.

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.