Xponance Inc. Has $11.60 Million Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Xponance Inc. trimmed its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 48,541 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 726 shares during the quarter. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $11,595,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. CVA Family Office LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 67.5% during the 2nd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 134 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. Quarry LP acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 150 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the period. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Verisk Analytics 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total value of $53,937.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,852,407.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK stock traded up $0.20 during trading on Friday, hitting $223.53. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 64,821 shares, compared to its average volume of 865,285. The company has a market cap of $31.91 billion, a PE ratio of 53.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85. The business has a fifty day moving average of $235.78 and a 200-day moving average of $237.26. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $187.86 and a 52 week high of $251.98.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $677.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.43 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 21st that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America downgraded Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $252.00.

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.