Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC Buys 622 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 330.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 810 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 622 shares during the period. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $223,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC boosted its holdings 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 worth $1,237,700,000 after buying an additional 283,653 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,618,266 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $436,204,000 after buying an additional 111,364 shares during the period. 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. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 8.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,103,628 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $297,491,000 after buying an additional 85,202 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 801,150 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $214,676,000 after buying an additional 8,262 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $273.81 on Thursday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $296.58. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $282.46 and a 200 day moving average of $274.68. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.72, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.88.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.19 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.52 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.57%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $286,490.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 54,163 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,517,157.87. This trade represents a 1.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 3,379 shares of company stock valued at $946,141. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSK has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of 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 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $293.11.

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.