GAMMA Investing LLC Invests $340,000 in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 1,409 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $340,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 10.9% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 346,646 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $82,800,000 after acquiring an additional 34,077 shares during the last quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 421.9% in the fourth quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc. now owns 75,404 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $18,011,000 after buying an additional 60,957 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 522,386 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $124,777,000 after buying an additional 28,008 shares in the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 36.2% in the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 1,332 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $315,000 after buying an additional 354 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.0% in the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 558,840 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $132,020,000 after buying an additional 31,855 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952 over the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $222.25 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.79, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $233.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $236.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $187.86 and a 52 week high of $251.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.44 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $677.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $673.56 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 305.15%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.43 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 21st that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.05%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on VRSK shares. Bank of America downgraded Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six 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 $252.00.

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.