Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC Takes Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 7,045 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,683,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 346,646 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $82,800,000 after buying an additional 34,077 shares in the last quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 421.9% in the fourth quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc. now owns 75,404 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $18,011,000 after buying an additional 60,957 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 522,386 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $124,777,000 after buying an additional 28,008 shares in the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 36.2% in the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 1,332 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $315,000 after buying an additional 354 shares in the last quarter. Finally, abrdn plc raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 55.2% in the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 60,324 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $14,409,000 after buying an additional 21,458 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

VRSK traded down $1.65 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $221.14. 815,688 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 877,721. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $232.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $236.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.53, a price-to-earnings-growth 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. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $187.86 and a 1-year high of $251.98.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.44 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $677.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $673.56 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 305.15% and a net margin of 22.92%. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.43 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.05%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total transaction of $53,937.47. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,796 shares in the company, valued at $1,852,407.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on VRSK. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $252.00.

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.