Opal Wealth Advisors LLC Takes $165,000 Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Opal Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 554 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $165,000.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,210,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,435,012,000 after acquiring an additional 392,270 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,691,016 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,292,047,000 after acquiring an additional 72,045 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,811,563 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,051,300,000 after buying an additional 19,423 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at about $526,676,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,654,826 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $455,789,000 after buying an additional 144,599 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 1.1%

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $310.41 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $43.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.87. 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 stock’s 50-day moving average is $303.01 and its 200-day moving average is $292.41. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $257.59 and a one year high of $322.92.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $753.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.31 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. Verisk Analytics’s revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.63 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th 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 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.35%.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on Verisk Analytics in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $280.00 target price on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $302.40.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In related news, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.06, for a total transaction of $3,649,027.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 67,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,051,406.64. This trade represents a 14.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,419 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $318.10, for a total value of $1,723,783.90. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 56,701 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,036,588.10. The trade was a 8.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,259 shares of company stock valued at $7,553,769 over the last 90 days. 0.46% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.