Proficio Capital Partners LLC Acquires 189 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 15.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,432 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 189 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $394,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. M&T Bank Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 20,818 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,734,000 after buying an additional 883 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 14.6% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 7,712 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,124,000 after acquiring an additional 982 shares in the last quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp now owns 25,560 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $7,040,000 after buying an additional 313 shares in the last quarter. Crew Capital Management Ltd. increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 246.8% in the fourth quarter. Crew Capital Management Ltd. now owns 2,823 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $778,000 after acquiring an additional 2,009 shares during the period. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 12.5% during the 4th quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,419 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $392,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VRSK has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays lowered Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.33.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $294.95, for a total transaction of $347,746.05. Following the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $4,066,180.70. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,648 shares of company stock valued at $1,613,047 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $287.76 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $40.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.89, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.34 and a 52-week high of $306.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $289.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $281.00.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. Analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 26.87%.

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

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.