Hanson & Doremus Investment Management Acquires Shares of 500 Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Hanson & Doremus Investment Management acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 500 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $138,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of VRSK. Creative Planning raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.8% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 17,003 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,583,000 after purchasing an additional 1,080 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 161.6% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 5,532 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,491,000 after purchasing an additional 3,417 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 30.8% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 4,318 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,164,000 after purchasing an additional 1,017 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 55,957 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $15,083,000 after purchasing an additional 1,442 shares during the period. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter worth $2,398,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on VRSK. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted 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. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted 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. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $293.11.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $286,490.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 54,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,517,157.87. The trade was a 1.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $57,298.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,471,535.92. The trade was a 1.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 5,490 shares of company stock valued at $1,541,570. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 1.9 %

VRSK stock opened at $288.08 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.68 billion, a PE ratio of 44.94, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.88. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $296.58. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $281.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $275.11.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.19 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.52 earnings per share. Verisk Analytics’s revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 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.