Ariadne Wealth Management LP Buys Shares of 2,574 Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Ariadne Wealth Management LP bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 2,574 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $694,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of VRSK. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 225.5% in the fourth quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 205,110 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $48,993,000 after acquiring an additional 142,088 shares during the period. Pinebridge Investments L.P. lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. Pinebridge Investments L.P. now owns 8,231 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,966,000 after acquiring an additional 3,219 shares during the period. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at $698,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 worth $3,919,008,000 after buying an additional 170,620 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.2% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 362,915 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $85,550,000 after buying an additional 4,147 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on VRSK shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $268.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $275.23.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.22, for a total transaction of $88,743.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,033,483.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.22, for a total transaction of $88,743.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 7,470 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,033,483.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.38, for a total transaction of $55,476.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,408 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,551,251.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $267.96 on Tuesday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $215.32 and a 52 week high of $287.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.86, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $269.15 and its 200-day moving average is $256.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.16 billion, a PE ratio of 49.99, a PEG ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 0.86.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $1.74 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.10. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.03% and a return on equity of 252.11%. The firm had revenue of $716.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.45 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.51 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, September 15th were issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio 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.