Wedmont Private Capital Has $567,000 Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Wedmont Private Capital raised its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 4.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,109 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the quarter. Wedmont Private Capital’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $567,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 188.2% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 25,637 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,454,000 after buying an additional 16,742 shares during the last quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 899.1% in the third quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 11,919 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,913,000 after purchasing an additional 10,726 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 479.1% in the third quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd now owns 16,853 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,516,000 after purchasing an additional 13,943 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 15.3% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 35,908 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,622,000 after purchasing an additional 4,767 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 5.7% in the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 44,290 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $11,868,000 after purchasing an additional 2,374 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on VRSK shares. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley upped 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $293.11.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $273.49 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $38.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.67, a P/E/G ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.88. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $282.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $274.68. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $217.34 and a one year high of $296.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.07. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The firm had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.19 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.52 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 24.34%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $286,490.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,517,157.87. This represents a 1.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 3,379 shares of company stock worth $946,141 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.