Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Sold by Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc.

Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. reduced its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 16.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,238 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 248 shares during the period. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $296,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,523,191 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,777,279,000 after purchasing an additional 392,945 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,929,841 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,164,626,000 after buying an additional 182,631 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,661,558 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $392,526,000 after buying an additional 89,920 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 21.4% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,195,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $282,418,000 after acquiring an additional 211,032 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,048,905 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $247,793,000 after acquiring an additional 60,228 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 1.9 %

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $241.86 on Tuesday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $209.02 and a 12 month high of $251.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94. The stock has a market cap of $34.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.79. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $231.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $236.00.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 268.19% and a net margin of 28.45%. The firm had revenue of $704.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $699.07 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.29 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Saturday, June 15th will be issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.10%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 21st that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VRSK. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.31.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total value of $53,937.47. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,852,407.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.