Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. Boosts Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 142,565 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,322 shares during the period. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. owned 0.10% of Verisk Analytics worth $34,053,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% during 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 acquiring an additional 392,945 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,929,841 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,164,626,000 after acquiring an additional 182,631 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,821,265 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $731,736,000 after buying an additional 49,928 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings 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 valued at $664,346,000 after buying an additional 2,684,234 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. boosted its holdings 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 valued at $470,762,000 after buying an additional 1,860,298 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

VRSK traded up $0.15 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $222.25. 841,364 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 878,728. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $187.86 and a 1 year high of $251.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $236.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $237.46.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $673.56 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.43 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

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

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 21st that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the business services provider to buy up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on VRSK. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America cut shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total transaction of $375,619.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 50,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,514,344. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total value of $375,619.75. Following the sale, the insider now owns 50,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,514,344. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total transaction of $53,937.47. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,796 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,852,407.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952 in the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Verisk Analytics

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.