Crestwood Advisors Group LLC Acquires New Shares in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Crestwood Advisors Group LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 759 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,618,971 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,237,700,000 after purchasing an additional 283,653 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,231,201 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $331,476,000 after purchasing an additional 78,376 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 801,150 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $214,676,000 after purchasing an additional 8,262 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 46.7% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 614,831 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $164,750,000 after purchasing an additional 195,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 332,650 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $91,622,000 after purchasing an additional 1,308 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on VRSK shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. 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 note on Thursday, December 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $313.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 in the company, valued at $3,760,958.66. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the sale, the insider now owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 4,469 shares of company stock worth $1,264,818. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 3.9 %

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $288.03 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $40.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.93, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $283.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $277.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $300.50.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the business services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.