LVW Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 790 Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

LVW Advisors LLC bought a new position 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 790 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $235,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on VRSK. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, 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 on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.2%

VRSK stock traded down $0.74 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $320.59. 725,298 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 760,691. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $299.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $291.11. The company has a market cap of $44.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.87. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $257.59 and a 1-year high of $324.65. 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 (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $753.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.31 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.63 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast 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 Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is currently 26.35%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total transaction 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.68, for a total transaction of $1,755,314.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,937 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,980,456.16. The trade was a 30.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,363 shares of company stock valued at $2,529,187 over the last three months. 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.