South Dakota Investment Council Trims Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

South Dakota Investment Council decreased its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 29.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,729 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 2,000 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,130,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of VRSK. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% in 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 period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of 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 during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.8% during 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 during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 131.2% during the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 312,569 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $73,841,000 after buying an additional 177,391 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 22.1% during the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 920,719 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $217,511,000 after buying an additional 166,656 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on VRSK shares. Bank of America lowered Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of Verisk Analytics 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,528,824.95. 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 quarter. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $222.25 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $187.86 and a 52 week high of $251.98. The company has a market capitalization of $31.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $233.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $236.82.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

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

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has approved 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 repurchase up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.