Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. Boosts Stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 88.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,820 shares of the business services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 10,266 shares during the quarter. Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC.'s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $6,010,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of VRSK. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 468.8% in the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Kestra Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 price target for the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. UBS Group raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price 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. 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $302.40.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In related news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.86, for a total transaction of $337,028.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $3,940,865.96. The trade was a 7.88% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.68, for a total value of $1,755,314.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,937 shares in the company, valued at $3,980,456.16. This represents a 30.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,363 shares of company stock valued at $2,529,187 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $313.10 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The company has a market capitalization of $43.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The business's 50 day moving average is $294.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $288.69. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $245.01 and a twelve month high of $314.65.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.05. The company 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 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.63 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.57%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.35%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the business services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.

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