Insider Selling: Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Insider Sells $346,433.22 in Stock

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the business’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 transaction, the insider now owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Nicholas Daffan also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, March 12th, Nicholas Daffan sold 1,531 shares of Verisk Analytics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $236.12, for a total transaction of $361,499.72.
• On Monday, February 12th, Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of Verisk Analytics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total transaction of $375,619.75.
• On Tuesday, January 16th, Nicholas Daffan sold 25 shares of Verisk Analytics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $235.48, for a total transaction of $5,887.00.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

VRSK stock opened at $222.25 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $31.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.79, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $236.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $237.36. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $187.86 and a one year high of $251.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.44 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $677.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $673.56 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 305.15%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.43 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 37.05%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Smithfield Trust Co increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.3% during the fourth quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 727 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $175,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 25.6% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 221 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 6,183 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,477,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 1,417 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $335,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Finally, Webster Bank N. A. increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 28.4% in the 1st quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 208 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $49,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on VRSK shares. 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 research report on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $252.00.

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.