Fidelis Capital Partners LLC Increases Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Fidelis Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 17.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,800 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 265 shares during the period. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $430,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of VRSK. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 248.2% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,765,708 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $664,346,000 after purchasing an additional 2,684,234 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1,404.8% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,992,727 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $470,762,000 after purchasing an additional 1,860,298 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth $268,659,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,523,191 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,777,279,000 after purchasing an additional 392,945 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 40.4% in the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,205,157 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $212,612,000 after purchasing an additional 346,785 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America lowered Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $252.00.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In related news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total value of $375,619.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 50,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,514,344. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total transaction of $375,619.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 50,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,514,344. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $222.52 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $187.86 and a 12 month high of $251.98. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $235.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $237.16. The company has a market cap of $31.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.86, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.78.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.39 dividend. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.05%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 21st that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.