Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Acquires 3,071 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 26.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 14,776 shares of the business services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 3,071 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $4,398,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Louisbourg Investments Inc. purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Global Financial Private Client LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 966.7% in the first quarter. Global Financial Private Client LLC now owns 128 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter worth $39,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter valued at $48,000. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter valued at $60,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on VRSK. UBS Group upped their price target 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 lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 price objective on the stock. One equities 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 company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK traded up $5.11 on Monday, reaching $305.62. The company had a trading volume of 648,312 shares, compared to its average volume of 856,170. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $257.59 and a 52-week high of $322.92. The company has a market cap of $42.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.75, a P/E/G ratio of 3.73 and a beta of 0.86. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $309.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $295.56.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $753.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $750.31 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 396.08% and a net margin of 33.13%. The firm's revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.63 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th were paid a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.59%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 13th. Verisk Analytics's payout ratio is 26.35%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.06, for a total value 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. This represents a 14.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.86, for a total transaction of $98,080.36. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 9,319 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,803,714.34. This represents a 3.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 28,825 shares of company stock valued at $8,945,180 over the last quarter. 0.46% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.