Scotia Capital Inc. Acquires 191 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Scotia Capital Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 21,808 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 191 shares during the quarter. Scotia Capital Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $5,209,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of VRSK. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% during the third 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 last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.8% in 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 buying an additional 182,631 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,661,558 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $392,526,000 after buying an additional 89,920 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth $374,530,000. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 45.8% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,342,721 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $320,722,000 after acquiring an additional 422,002 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK traded up $3.41 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $252.78. 2,984,791 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 682,575. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $235.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $238.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.79. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $215.32 and a fifty-two week high of $254.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09.

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

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 21st that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to buy up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Saturday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.62%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.10%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,531 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $236.12, for a total transaction of $361,499.72. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 50,973 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,035,744.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,531 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $236.12, for a total value of $361,499.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 50,973 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,035,744.76. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 11,304 shares of company stock worth $2,648,390. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VRSK. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $254.31.

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.