Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Purchases 686 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 72.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,635 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 686 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $391,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of VRSK. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 117.1% in the third quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 267 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Park Place Capital Corp increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 10.8% during the third quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 1,607 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $380,000 after buying an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the third quarter worth approximately $203,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 20.5% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 4,654 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,099,000 after buying an additional 791 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 61.7% during the third quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd now owns 5,441 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,285,000 after buying an additional 2,077 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total value of $53,937.47. Following the sale, the insider now owns 7,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,852,407.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI reissued 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 downgraded Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $252.00.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK traded down $1.77 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $220.48. 199,667 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 865,840. The business’s 50 day moving average is $234.28 and its 200-day moving average is $236.93. The company has a market capitalization of $31.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $187.86 and a 1-year high of $251.98.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 analyst estimates of $673.56 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 305.15% and a net margin of 22.92%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.43 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 21st that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding 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 often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.05%.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.