Federated Hermes Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 10.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 346,646 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 34,077 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. owned about 0.24% of Verisk Analytics worth $82,800,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fenimore Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 421.9% during the fourth quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc. now owns 75,404 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $18,011,000 after purchasing an additional 60,957 shares in the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 36.2% during the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 1,332 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $315,000 after purchasing an additional 354 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 522,386 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $124,777,000 after purchasing an additional 28,008 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 6.0% during the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 558,840 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $132,020,000 after purchasing an additional 31,855 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 21.9% during the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 552,316 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $130,479,000 after purchasing an additional 99,115 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSK has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. 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. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.00.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock opened at $223.33 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $187.86 and a 1 year high of $251.98. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $235.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $237.26. The stock has a market cap of $31.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.05, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

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

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 21st that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total transaction of $53,937.47. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,852,407.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics 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.