SRN Advisors LLC Trims Stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

SRN Advisors LLC cut its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,425 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 194 shares during the quarter. Verisk Analytics makes up 1.3% of SRN Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. SRN Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,494,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 17.5% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 3,221 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $863,000 after purchasing an additional 479 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 26,695.7% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 31,083 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,329,000 after buying an additional 30,967 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 18.5% during the third quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 17,103 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,583,000 after buying an additional 2,671 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 110.6% in the 3rd quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,807 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $484,000 after acquiring an additional 949 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 5,273 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,413,000 after acquiring an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $313.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.33.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was 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 directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,760,958.66. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. The trade was a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,469 shares of company stock worth $1,264,818 over the last ninety days. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK stock opened at $288.03 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $283.61 and a 200-day moving average of $277.94. The company has a market cap of $40.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.93, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $217.34 and a 12-month high of $300.50.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.62%. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 24.34%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the business services provider to purchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.