Vontobel Holding Ltd. Purchases 13,995 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 21.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 77,807 shares of the business services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 13,995 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd. owned about 0.06% of Verisk Analytics worth $23,157,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Louisbourg Investments Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the first quarter worth about $25,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6,050.0% in 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 during the last quarter. Global Financial Private Client LLC raised its holdings 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 valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at $39,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,419 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $318.10, for a total value of $1,723,783.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 56,701 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $18,036,588.10. The trade was a 8.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.86, for a total transaction of $337,028.94. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 13,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,940,865.96. This represents a 7.88% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 24,259 shares of company stock worth $7,553,769 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on VRSK shares. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Finally, 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 research note on Thursday, May 8th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ VRSK traded down $11.74 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $301.21. The company had a trading volume of 1,204,151 shares, compared to its average volume of 773,248. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $307.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $294.02. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $257.59 and a fifty-two week high of $322.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.13. The stock has a market cap of $42.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 0.86.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.05. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 396.08% and a net margin of 33.13%. The business had revenue of $753.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $750.31 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.63 EPS. Verisk Analytics's quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.60%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.35%.

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.