Welch & Forbes LLC Has $4.37 Million Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Welch & Forbes LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 5.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 18,297 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 964 shares during the period. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $4,370,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,523,191 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,777,279,000 after acquiring an additional 392,945 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 3.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,929,841 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,164,626,000 after acquiring an additional 182,631 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 5.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,661,558 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $392,526,000 after acquiring an additional 89,920 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 21.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,195,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $282,418,000 after acquiring an additional 211,032 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 6.1% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,048,905 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $247,793,000 after acquiring an additional 60,228 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on VRSK shares. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Bank of America lowered Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $254.31.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK traded up $5.14 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $247.00. 1,094,494 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 908,485. The company has a market capitalization of $35.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.79. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $209.02 and a 1-year high of $251.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The business has a 50 day moving average of $231.47 and a 200 day moving average of $236.09.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $704.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $699.07 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 268.19% and a net margin of 28.45%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.29 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.53 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is presently 29.10%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 21st that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the business services provider to buy up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,528,824.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.