Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 771 Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 771 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in VRSK. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $703,000. HB Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,198 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $881,000 after buying an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 822 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $226,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 36.7% in the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 6,307 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,737,000 after acquiring an additional 1,693 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC now owns 1,743 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $480,000 after acquiring an additional 126 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % 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 Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the sale, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,490 shares of company stock valued at $1,541,570 in the last ninety days. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSK has been the subject of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. 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. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Barclays cut shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $293.11.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $280.06 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $39.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.69, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.88. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $296.58. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $282.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $274.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.07. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The company had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.19 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.52 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict 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 Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

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.