B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. Has $299,000 Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lessened its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 22.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,253 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 370 shares during the quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $299,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,407,133 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,919,008,000 after acquiring an additional 170,620 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at about $374,530,000. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 45.8% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,342,721 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $320,722,000 after purchasing an additional 422,002 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 21.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,195,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $282,418,000 after purchasing an additional 211,032 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 90.5% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,141,516 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $272,663,000 after purchasing an additional 542,432 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSK has been the topic of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $255.08.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.31, for a total transaction of $52,462.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 16,608 shares in the company, valued at $4,356,444.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 3,265 shares of company stock worth $774,953 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $269.86 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The company has a market capitalization of $38.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $248.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $241.55. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $215.32 and a 52 week high of $273.70.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $704.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $699.07 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 28.45% and a return on equity of 268.19%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.29 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Saturday, June 15th will be issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.58%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.10%.

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.