Empowered Funds LLC Buys 3,799 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 168.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 6,057 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,799 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,668,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 897 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $247,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Arlington Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 38.5% during the fourth quarter. Arlington Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,438 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $396,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. Apollon Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 37.6% during the fourth quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,747 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $757,000 after purchasing an additional 751 shares during the period. Appleton Partners Inc. MA boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Appleton Partners Inc. MA now owns 44,181 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $12,169,000 after purchasing an additional 261 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 15,852 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,366,000 after purchasing an additional 370 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on VRSK. Barclays lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $293.11.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock opened at $293.48 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.34 and a 1 year high of $296.94. The firm has a market cap of $41.44 billion, a PE ratio of 45.78, a PEG ratio of 3.39 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 company has a 50 day simple moving average of $281.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $276.24.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total transaction of $280,710.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,163 shares in the company, valued at $14,923,385.73. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,469 shares of company stock worth $1,545,528 over the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.