EFG Asset Management Americas Corp. Lowers Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

EFG Asset Management Americas Corp. lowered its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 28.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 35,703 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 13,972 shares during the period. Verisk Analytics accounts for 1.8% of EFG Asset Management Americas Corp.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. EFG Asset Management Americas Corp.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $8,528,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in VRSK. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 346,646 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $82,800,000 after acquiring an additional 34,077 shares during the period. Fenimore Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 421.9% during the fourth quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc. now owns 75,404 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $18,011,000 after acquiring an additional 60,957 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 522,386 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $124,777,000 after purchasing an additional 28,008 shares in the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 36.2% during the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 1,332 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $315,000 after purchasing an additional 354 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.0% during the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 558,840 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $132,020,000 after purchasing an additional 31,855 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total transaction of $53,937.47. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 7,796 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,852,407.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total value of $53,937.47. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 7,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,852,407.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

VRSK stock traded down $0.81 on Friday, reaching $222.52. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 714,317 shares, compared to its average volume of 927,408. The company has a market capitalization of $31.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $187.86 and a 52 week high of $251.98. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $235.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $237.18.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.44 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $677.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $673.56 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 305.15% and a net margin of 22.92%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.43 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 21st that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to buy up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 37.05%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on VRSK. Bank of America cut Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $252.00.

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.