Procyon Advisors LLC Buys 497 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Procyon Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 33.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,976 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 497 shares during the period. Procyon Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $472,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of 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 valued at $1,777,279,000 after purchasing an additional 392,945 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,929,841 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,164,626,000 after purchasing an additional 182,631 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 49,928 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 248.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,765,708 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $664,346,000 after purchasing an additional 2,684,234 shares during the period. Finally, Citigroup Inc. raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1,404.8% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,992,727 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $470,762,000 after purchasing an additional 1,860,298 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,531 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $236.12, for a total transaction of $361,499.72. Following the sale, the insider now owns 50,973 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,035,744.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 11,278 shares of company stock valued at $2,662,515. Company insiders own 1.31% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK stock opened at $235.73 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $186.96 and a 12 month high of $251.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $241.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $239.01. The stock has a market cap of $33.80 billion, a PE ratio of 55.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.79.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released 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 return on equity of 305.15% and a net margin of 22.92%. The firm 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 firm posted $1.43 earnings per share. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 14th. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 37.05%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and set a $253.00 price objective (up from $252.00) on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Friday, December 8th. Finally, Bank of America cut shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.00.

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.