Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC Purchases 7,401 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 1.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 633,037 shares of the business services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 7,401 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC owned about 0.45% of Verisk Analytics worth $174,358,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 468.8% in the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the period. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on VRSK. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. UBS Group increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. BMO Capital Markets upped 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. Finally, Bank of America initiated 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ VRSK traded down $0.01 on Friday, hitting $314.32. 170,661 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 842,728. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.04, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The business's fifty day moving average is $297.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $290.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $245.01 and a 12 month high of $317.81.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.05. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The business had revenue of $753.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.31 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.63 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.57%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.35%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 13,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,071,832.96. This represents a 7.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total value of $88,614.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 16,665 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,922,507.70. This represents a 1.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,363 shares of company stock worth $2,529,187 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.46% 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.