Federated Hermes Inc. Has $50.09 Million Stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 15.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 168,304 shares of the business services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 22,410 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. owned 0.12% of Verisk Analytics worth $50,091,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 225.2% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 14,919 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $4,440,000 after acquiring an additional 10,331 shares in the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter worth $237,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter worth $202,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 21.9% during the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 77,807 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $23,157,000 after buying an additional 13,995 shares during the period. Finally, Summit Trail Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 88.4% during the 1st quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 2,018 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $601,000 after buying an additional 947 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on VRSK shares. Robert W. Baird increased 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. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $302.30.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 2.4%

Verisk Analytics stock traded down $6.82 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $271.89. 1,544,019 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 983,088. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $306.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $297.26. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $259.22 and a 52 week high of $322.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.99 billion, a PE ratio of 41.89, a P/E/G ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $772.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $767.91 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.74 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th will be paid a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.73%.

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.