Crestwood Advisors Group LLC Buys New Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Crestwood Advisors Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 759 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 468.8% during the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Kestra Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 3.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $288.03 on Thursday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $217.34 and a one year high of $300.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $283.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $277.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.67 billion, a PE ratio of 44.93, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.01. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The firm had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $733.55 million. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.62%. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. The trade was a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,469 shares of company stock valued at $1,264,818 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on VRSK. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research 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 research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $313.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.33.

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.