Machina Capital S.A.S. Purchases Shares of 4,625 Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Machina Capital S.A.S. purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,625 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,376,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 225.2% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 14,919 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $4,440,000 after purchasing an additional 10,331 shares during the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the first quarter valued at about $237,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the first quarter worth about $202,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 21.9% during the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 77,807 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $23,157,000 after purchasing an additional 13,995 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 747,337 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $205,839,000 after purchasing an additional 53,502 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of VRSK traded up $1.87 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $297.96. 602,534 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 954,984. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $257.59 and a 52-week high of $322.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.13, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.27. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $308.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $296.83. The firm has a market cap of $41.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.86.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last released 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. The company had revenue of $753.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.31 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 396.08% and a net margin of 33.13%. Verisk Analytics's revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.63 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th were issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.60%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.35%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the company's 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 sale, the chief accounting officer owned 12,937 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,980,456.16. This represents a 30.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.88, for a total value of $91,164.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 15,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,790,668.20. The trade was a 1.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 28,825 shares of company stock worth $8,947,730 over the last three months. 0.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSK has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price 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 upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on Verisk Analytics in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. One equities 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $302.40.

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.