Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA Invests $973,000 in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 3,509 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $973,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Howard Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,262 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,174,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 910 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $251,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the period. Redmond Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Redmond Asset Management LLC now owns 9,215 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,538,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the period. Matauro LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $392,000. Finally, Bell Bank raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Bell Bank now owns 1,005 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $277,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $313.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Barclays lowered Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.33.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $295.11 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $282.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $277.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market cap of $41.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.04, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.34 and a 1 year high of $296.94.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,557,155.96. This trade represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,469 shares of company stock valued at $1,264,818. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.