Ethic Inc. Has $5.91 Million Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Ethic Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 5.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 21,454 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,099 shares during the period. Ethic Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $5,909,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its holdings 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 during the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.68, for a total transaction of $1,755,314.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,937 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,980,456.16. This represents a 30.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total transaction of $88,614.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,665 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,922,507.70. The trade was a 1.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 8,363 shares of company stock valued at $2,529,187. 0.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on VRSK shares. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays lowered 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. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $280.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $298.90.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $309.50 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $43.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.28, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $244.99 and a twelve month high of $312.82. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $292.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $286.68.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $753.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $750.31 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. Verisk Analytics’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.63 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.58%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.35%.

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.