William Blair Investment Management LLC Purchases New Shares in Verisk Analytics, Inc. $VRSK

William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 399,551 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $89,376,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 2.1% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,241,327 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,336,366,000 after buying an additional 346,525 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 3.1% during the third quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,354,082 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,346,605,000 after buying an additional 158,791 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 1.6% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,694,505 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $426,185,000 after buying an additional 26,518 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 6.4% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,493,296 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $374,547,000 after buying an additional 89,193 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 5.2% during the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,261,699 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $317,330,000 after buying an additional 62,533 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on VRSK shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Robert W. Baird set a $230.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $223.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $225.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $239.00 to $206.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $237.20.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.22, for a total value of $63,688.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 19,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,118,164.48. The trade was a 2.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,200 shares of company stock valued at $214,200. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $171.11 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $180.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $200.84. The firm has a market cap of $22.42 billion, a PE ratio of 26.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.72. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $155.94 and a 1 year high of $322.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.42, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $1.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.06. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 29.34% and a negative return on equity of 2,405.75%. The business had revenue of $782.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $771.62 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.73 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.450-7.750 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 30.44%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 18th that permits the company to repurchase $2.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the business services provider to reacquire up to 10.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

About Verisk Analytics

Verisk Analytics, Inc (NASDAQ: VRSK) is a data analytics and decision‑support provider that helps organizations assess and manage risk. The company supplies data, predictive models and software to customers in insurance, reinsurance, financial services, government, energy and other commercial markets. Its offerings are designed to support underwriting, pricing, claims management, catastrophe modeling, fraud detection and regulatory compliance, enabling clients to make more informed operational and strategic decisions.

Verisk’s product portfolio combines large proprietary datasets with analytics platforms and industry‑specific applications.