Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Sold by Amalgamated Bank

Amalgamated Bank reduced its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 37,967 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,252 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $9,069,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of VRSK. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 21.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,195,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $282,418,000 after buying an additional 211,032 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 3.8% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 131.2% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 312,569 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $73,841,000 after acquiring an additional 177,391 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 22.1% in the 3rd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 920,719 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $217,511,000 after acquiring an additional 166,656 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSK has been the topic of several research analyst reports. 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. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Bank of America downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $254.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the company’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now owns 7,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,852,407.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952 over the last 90 days. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $237.33 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $231.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $235.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.28, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $205.70 and a 52 week high of $251.98.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $704.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $699.07 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 268.19% and a net margin of 28.45%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.29 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

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

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 21st that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to purchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.