Hills Bank & Trust Co Lowers Stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Hills Bank & Trust Co lessened its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 15.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,787 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 501 shares during the quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $666,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. CVA Family Office LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 150 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter worth $39,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 506.5% during the third quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 188 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 157 shares during the period. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the third quarter valued at about $50,000. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $254.31.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ VRSK traded up $0.41 on Thursday, hitting $244.98. The stock had a trading volume of 522,915 shares, compared to its average volume of 902,776. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $212.90 and a 52-week high of $251.98. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $231.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $236.15. 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 stock has a market cap of $34.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.79.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $704.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 period in the prior year, the company posted $1.29 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Saturday, June 15th will be paid a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.10%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has authorized a share buyback 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 stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 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 hyperlink. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952. 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.