New York Life Investment Management LLC Cuts Stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

New York Life Investment Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,743 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 156 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $5,432,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in 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 valued at $1,777,279,000 after purchasing an additional 392,945 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake 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 worth $1,164,626,000 after buying an additional 182,631 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 5.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,661,558 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $392,526,000 after acquiring an additional 89,920 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,048,905 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $247,793,000 after acquiring an additional 60,228 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,528,824.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,829,348.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952 over the last 90 days. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on VRSK. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.21.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $237.33 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $205.70 and a 1-year high of $251.98. The firm has a market cap of $33.86 billion, a PE ratio of 44.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a 50-day moving average of $231.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $236.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $699.07 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.29 EPS. Verisk Analytics’s revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.53 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 21st that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to purchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.10%.

About Verisk Analytics

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.