EFG Asset Management North America Corp. Has $2.53 Million Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

EFG Asset Management North America Corp. cut its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 11.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 9,184 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,213 shares during the quarter. EFG Asset Management North America Corp.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $2,530,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Haverford Trust Co increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Haverford Trust Co now owns 903 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $249,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Napatree Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth about $209,000. LPL Financial LLC lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 108,103 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $29,775,000 after acquiring an additional 15,233 shares in the last quarter. Guardian Partners Inc. acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,676,000. Finally, Fox Run Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,422,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the sale, the insider now owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047 over the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VRSK has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.8 %

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $287.76 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The company has a market capitalization of $40.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.89, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $289.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $281.00. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $306.10.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.01. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The business had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $733.55 million. As a group, equities analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the business services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.63%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 26.87%.

About Verisk Analytics

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.