Fenimore Asset Management Inc Has $33.92 Million Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Fenimore Asset Management Inc grew its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 123,156 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 830 shares during the period. Fenimore Asset Management Inc’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $33,921,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 6.5% in the third 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 last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2,380.6% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 46.7% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 614,831 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $164,750,000 after buying an additional 195,700 shares during the period. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 158.2% during the third quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 184,806 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $49,521,000 after buying an additional 113,230 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 7.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,618,266 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $436,204,000 after buying an additional 111,364 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSK has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. 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 report on Friday, January 10th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $293.11.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $278.93 on Friday. 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 firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $281.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $274.97. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.34 and a 12 month high of $296.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.39 billion, a PE ratio of 43.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.88.

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

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors 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 dividend yield of 0.56%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 24.34%.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the transaction, the director now directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $57,298.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,471,535.92. This represents a 1.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,490 shares of company stock valued at $1,541,570 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.