Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC Cuts Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC trimmed its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,055 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 61 shares during the quarter. Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $730,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 150 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the third quarter worth $39,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its holdings 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 worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the third quarter worth $50,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Bank of America cut shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.21.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK traded up $2.90 on Friday, reaching $236.66. 348,064 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 897,134. The stock has a market cap of $33.78 billion, a PE ratio of 43.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.79. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $205.70 and a twelve month high of $251.98. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $231.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $236.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share 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 net margin of 28.45% and a return on equity of 268.19%. Verisk Analytics’s revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.29 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Saturday, June 15th will be issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.10%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 21st that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to purchase up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the transaction, 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. In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now 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 available at this link. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total transaction of $375,619.75. Following the sale, the insider now owns 50,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,514,344. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.