Whittier Trust Co. Acquires 212 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Whittier Trust Co. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 5.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,453 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 212 shares during the quarter. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,226,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 468.8% during the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business’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 sale, the insider now owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. The trade was a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.36, for a total transaction of $348,229.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,071,832.96. 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 5,648 shares of company stock valued at $1,613,047 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSK has been the topic of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted 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 note on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays cut shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $285.16 on Friday. 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 $306.10. The firm has a market cap of $40.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.49, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $289.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $280.76.

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

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.63%. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 26.87%.

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.