Verisk Analytics, Inc. $VRSK Shares Sold by Rathbones Group PLC

Key Points

• Rathbones Group PLC trimmed its Verisk Analytics stake by 9.8% in the fourth quarter, selling 14,634 shares and leaving it with 134,815 shares valued at about $30.2 million.
• Verisk drew mixed analyst views: Bank of America cut its target to $190 and kept a neutral rating, while Raymond James upgraded the stock to strong-buy; the consensus rating remains Hold with a $237.20 target.
• The company beat earnings expectations in its latest quarter, reporting EPS of $1.82 versus $1.76 expected, and it also authorized a $2.5 billion share buyback plus a quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share.

Rathbones Group PLC reduced its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 9.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 134,815 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 14,634 shares during the quarter. Rathbones Group PLC owned about 0.10% of Verisk Analytics worth $30,157,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Ameriflex Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Elevation Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $48,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Christopher John Perry acquired 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $180.00 per share, with a total value of $180,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 2,994 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $538,920. The trade was a 50.15% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 400 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.22, for a total value of $63,688.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 19,584 shares in the company, valued at $3,118,164.48. This represents a 2.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 1,200 shares of company stock worth $214,200 in the last ninety days. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VRSK. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $225.00 to $190.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Raymond James Financial raised shares of Verisk Analytics from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $215.00 to $260.00 in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Morgan Stanley set a $235.00 target price on Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 30th. UBS Group set a $224.00 target price on Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $237.20.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.0%

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $170.66 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $22.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.98, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.42. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $181.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $201.49. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $155.94 and a 12-month high of $322.92.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $1.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.06. Verisk Analytics had a negative return on equity of 2,405.75% and a net margin of 29.34%.The business had revenue of $782.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $771.62 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.73 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.450-7.750 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 18th that allows the company to buyback $2.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to buy up to 10.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is currently 30.44%.

Verisk Analytics Company Profile

Verisk Analytics, Inc NASDAQ: VRSK is a data analytics and decision‑support provider that helps organizations assess and manage risk. The company supplies data, predictive models and software to customers in insurance, reinsurance, financial services, government, energy and other commercial markets. Its offerings are designed to support underwriting, pricing, claims management, catastrophe modeling, fraud detection and regulatory compliance, enabling clients to make more informed operational and strategic decisions.

Verisk's product portfolio combines large proprietary datasets with analytics platforms and industry‑specific applications.

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