abrdn plc Boosts Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

abrdn plc raised its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 55.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 60,324 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 21,458 shares during the period. abrdn plc’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $14,409,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 10.9% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 346,646 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $82,800,000 after buying an additional 34,077 shares in the last quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 421.9% in the fourth quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc. now owns 75,404 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $18,011,000 after buying an additional 60,957 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 522,386 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $124,777,000 after buying an additional 28,008 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 36.2% during the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 1,332 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $315,000 after buying an additional 354 shares during the period. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.0% during the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 558,840 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $132,020,000 after buying an additional 31,855 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In related news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at $11,528,824.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,528,824.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952 over the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on VRSK shares. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America cut shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $252.00.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $222.25 on Thursday. 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 business’s 50 day moving average is $233.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $236.82. The company has a market capitalization of $31.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78.

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

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

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

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.