Hanson & Doremus Investment Management Acquires New Shares in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Hanson & Doremus Investment Management acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 500 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $138,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 101.5% in the 3rd quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 276 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $79,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $288.08 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $40.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.88. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $296.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $281.57 and a 200-day moving average of $275.11.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $722.19 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.52 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $3,760,958.66. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $286,490.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 54,163 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,517,157.87. This represents a 1.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,490 shares of company stock worth $1,541,570 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

About Verisk Analytics

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.