Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Bought by ExodusPoint Capital Management LP

ExodusPoint Capital Management LP grew its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 36.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 26,374 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,050 shares during the quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $7,264,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of VRSK. Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 468.8% during the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the sale, the insider now 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,648 shares of company stock valued at $1,613,047 in the last ninety days. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on VRSK shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays cut shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK opened at $284.99 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.34 and a 1-year high of $306.68. The stock has a market cap of $39.98 billion, a PE ratio of 44.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.88. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $292.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $282.37.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.87%.

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.