Woodline Partners LP Invests $2.35 Million in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Woodline Partners LP purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 8,546 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,354,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Vident Advisory LLC grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 95.7% in the 4th quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 19,722 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $5,432,000 after purchasing an additional 9,646 shares during the period. WBI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $2,498,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 214.6% in the 4th quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 95,024 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $26,172,000 after purchasing an additional 64,815 shares during the period. Triglav Skladi D.O.O. acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $445,000. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 48.2% in the 4th quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 8,463 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $2,331,000 after purchasing an additional 2,754 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on VRSK. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Bank of America began coverage on Verisk Analytics in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK traded up $0.70 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $315.02. The company's stock had a trading volume of 96,295 shares, compared to its average volume of 765,094. The company has a market cap of $44.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.14, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $297.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $290.24. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $245.01 and a 52-week high of $317.81.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $753.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.31 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The company's revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.63 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.57%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is currently 26.35%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to purchase up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,937 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,980,456.16. The trade was a 30.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business's 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 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,363 shares of company stock valued at $2,529,187. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.

Verisk Analytics 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.