Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Bought by City Holding Co.

City Holding Co. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 2.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,619 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 125 shares during the quarter. City Holding Co.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,272,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 188.2% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 25,637 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,454,000 after purchasing an additional 16,742 shares in the last quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 899.1% in the third quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 11,919 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,913,000 after purchasing an additional 10,726 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 479.1% in the third quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd now owns 16,853 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,516,000 after buying an additional 13,943 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 15.3% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 35,908 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,622,000 after buying an additional 4,767 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 44,290 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $11,868,000 after buying an additional 2,374 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total transaction of $280,710.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,923,385.73. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 3,379 shares of company stock worth $946,141 over the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.0 %

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $278.55 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $282.19 and a 200-day moving average of $274.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.34 and a 12 month high of $296.58. The company has a market cap of $39.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.46, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.88.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.19 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.52 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.34%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSK has been the subject of a number of research reports. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays lowered Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $293.11.

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.