Marks Group Wealth Management Inc Purchases 151 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Marks Group Wealth Management Inc raised its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 11,573 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 151 shares during the quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $3,188,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. FMR LLC raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,618,971 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,237,700,000 after acquiring an additional 283,653 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2,380.6% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 272,965 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $73,144,000 after purchasing an additional 261,961 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 46.7% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 614,831 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $164,750,000 after buying an additional 195,700 shares in the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 158.2% during the 3rd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 184,806 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $49,521,000 after buying an additional 113,230 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,231,201 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $331,476,000 after buying an additional 78,376 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VRSK. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays downgraded Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $293.11.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK opened at $294.30 on Wednesday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $217.34 and a 12-month high of $296.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The company has a market cap of $41.56 billion, a PE ratio of 45.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $281.36 and a 200-day moving average price of $275.81.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $286,490.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,517,157.87. This trade represents a 1.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $294.95, for a total value of $347,746.05. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,066,180.70. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,669 shares of company stock valued at $1,889,316 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.