Rathbones Group PLC Increases Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Key Points

• Rathbones Group PLC increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 1.8% during Q1, now holding 134,175 shares valued at approximately $39.93 million.
• Institutional investors dominate Verisk Analytics' stock ownership, accounting for 90% of shares, with significant stakes purchased by Nuveen LLC and GAMMA Investing LLC in the first quarter.
• Verisk Analytics reported a 7.8% year-over-year increase in revenue for the last quarter, achieving $772.60 million and exceeding analyst estimates.

Rathbones Group PLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 1.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 134,175 shares of the business services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 2,419 shares during the quarter. Rathbones Group PLC owned 0.10% of Verisk Analytics worth $39,933,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Townsquare Capital LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 17,912 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $4,934,000 after acquiring an additional 1,531 shares during the period. Optimize Financial Inc acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at about $208,000. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at about $564,000. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 11,253 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $3,099,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 12,737 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $3,508,000 after purchasing an additional 218 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,419 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $318.10, for a total transaction of $1,723,783.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 56,701 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,036,588.10. This represents a 8.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.88, for a total value of $91,164.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 15,765 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,790,668.20. The trade was a 1.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 23,120 shares of company stock worth $7,192,416. Company insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on VRSK shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 price target on Verisk Analytics and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. UBS Group dropped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $305.60.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 1.3%

NASDAQ VRSK traded up $3.51 on Thursday, reaching $267.70. The company had a trading volume of 1,452,951 shares, compared to its average volume of 904,296. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.25, a P/E/G ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 0.83. The company's fifty day moving average is $297.17 and its 200 day moving average is $296.51. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $259.01 and a 52-week high of $322.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.77 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $772.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $767.91 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 460.89% and a net margin of 30.67%. Verisk Analytics's quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.74 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be paid a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 15th. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is 27.73%.

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.