Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC Purchases 197 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 71.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 473 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the period. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $130,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sierra Ocean LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,619 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $452,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 468.8% during the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 95,570 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $26,502,000 after purchasing an additional 583 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. 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. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays downgraded Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $293.11.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,760,958.66. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. The trade was a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 4,469 shares of company stock worth $1,264,818. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $293.30 on Wednesday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.34 and a 52-week high of $296.94. The stock has a market cap of $41.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.89. The business’s 50 day moving average is $281.92 and its 200 day moving average is $276.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.34%.

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.