Webster Bank N. A. Purchases 46 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Webster Bank N. A. raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 28.4% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 208 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the period. Webster Bank N. A.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $49,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,407,133 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,919,008,000 after purchasing an additional 170,620 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at $374,530,000. TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 45.8% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,342,721 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $320,722,000 after purchasing an additional 422,002 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 21.4% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,195,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $282,418,000 after purchasing an additional 211,032 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 90.5% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,141,516 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $272,663,000 after purchasing an additional 542,432 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VRSK. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $255.08.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,511 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $376,057.68. Following the sale, the insider now owns 52,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,066,200. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.31, for a total value of $52,462.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 16,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,356,444.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,511 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $376,057.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 52,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,066,200. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 3,265 shares of company stock worth $774,953. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.5 %

VRSK stock traded down $1.30 on Friday, hitting $269.55. 1,101,753 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 765,502. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $215.32 and a 12-month high of $273.70. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $250.95 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $242.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market cap of $38.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.83.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $704.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $699.07 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 268.19% and a net margin of 28.45%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.29 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 15th were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is presently 29.10%.

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.