Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. reduced its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 161,273 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 5,773 shares during the period. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $47,998,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Bennett Selby Investments LP lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 3.1% in the first quarter. Bennett Selby Investments LP now owns 1,208 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $359,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 10.2% in the first quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 389 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $116,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 1,213 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $334,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Haverford Trust Co lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Haverford Trust Co now owns 903 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $249,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 5.1% in the first quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV now owns 944 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $281,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total transaction of $88,614.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 16,665 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,922,507.70. This represents a 1.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.86, for a total transaction of $337,028.94. Following the transaction, the director owned 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $3,940,865.96. The trade was a 7.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 24,259 shares of company stock valued at $7,553,769 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on VRSK shares. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 3.8%

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock opened at $301.21 on Thursday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $257.59 and a 52-week high of $322.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.13. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $307.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $294.07. The firm has a market cap of $42.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 0.86.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.05. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 33.13% and a return on equity of 396.08%. The business had revenue of $753.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.31 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.63 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.60%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 26.35%.

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.