Greenleaf Trust Has $2.15 Million Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Greenleaf Trust decreased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 2.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,984 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 234 shares during the period. Greenleaf Trust’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $2,146,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 248.2% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,765,708 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $664,346,000 after buying an additional 2,684,234 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1,404.8% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,992,727 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $470,762,000 after purchasing an additional 1,860,298 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at about $268,659,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% during the third 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. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 40.4% during the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,205,157 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $212,612,000 after purchasing an additional 346,785 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK traded down $0.81 during trading on Friday, hitting $222.52. 714,317 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 927,408. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $187.86 and a 52-week high of $251.98. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $235.22 and a 200 day moving average of $237.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The company has a market cap of $31.76 billion, a PE ratio of 52.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.78.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 37.05%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors 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 reacquire up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Bank of America cut shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total value of $53,937.47. Following 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 have sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952. Company 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.