Ewa LLC Purchases 123 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Ewa LLC grew its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 13.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,005 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the quarter. Ewa LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $249,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 3.0% during the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 23,802 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,623,000 after buying an additional 700 shares during the period. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the third quarter worth about $202,000. Cavalier Investments LLC boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 3.8% during the third quarter. Cavalier Investments LLC now owns 10,581 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,500,000 after purchasing an additional 385 shares during the period. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 100.0% in the 3rd quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,378 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $550,000 after purchasing an additional 1,189 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atlas Private Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Atlas Private Wealth Management now owns 5,497 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,299,000 after purchasing an additional 230 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK stock traded up $0.13 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $221.27. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 484,443 shares, compared to its average volume of 872,645. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.78. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $187.86 and a 12 month high of $251.98. The company has a 50 day moving average of $232.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of $236.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.44 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $677.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $673.56 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 305.15% and a net margin of 22.92%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.43 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 37.05%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 21st that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the business services provider to buy up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on VRSK shares. Bank of America lowered Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $252.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

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

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.