Principal Securities Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Principal Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 71.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,128 shares of the business services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 3,793 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc.'s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $2,514,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Louisbourg Investments Inc. purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 1st quarter worth $25,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6,050.0% during the fourth quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 123 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. Global Financial Private Client LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 966.7% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective 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 shares of 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 assumed coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.3%

NASDAQ:VRSK traded down $0.82 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $302.90. The stock had a trading volume of 724,673 shares, compared to its average volume of 779,662. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $309.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $295.17. The company has a market capitalization of $42.37 billion, a PE ratio of 44.35, a PEG ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.86. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $257.59 and a twelve month high of $322.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.13.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last issued 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 firm had revenue of $753.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $750.31 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 33.13% and a return on equity of 396.08%. The firm's revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.63 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director directly owned 67,244 shares in the company, valued at $21,051,406.64. This represents a 14.77% 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, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 9,319 shares in the company, valued at $2,803,714.34. This represents a 3.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,825 shares of company stock valued at $8,945,180 over the last three months. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by 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.