Strs Ohio Sells 45,189 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Strs Ohio reduced its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 20.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 176,914 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 45,189 shares during the quarter. Strs Ohio’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $42,257,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% during 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 buying an additional 392,945 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew 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 valued at $1,164,626,000 after buying an additional 182,631 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,821,265 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $731,736,000 after buying an additional 49,928 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 248.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,765,708 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $664,346,000 after buying an additional 2,684,234 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1,404.8% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,992,727 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $470,762,000 after buying an additional 1,860,298 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In related news, 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 transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,531 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $236.12, for a total value of $361,499.72. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 50,973 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,035,744.76. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,771 shares of company stock worth $2,307,406 over the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.8 %

VRSK stock traded up $1.87 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $224.40. The company had a trading volume of 41,857 shares, compared to its average volume of 856,609. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick 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 stock’s 50 day moving average price is $237.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $237.69. The stock has a market cap of $32.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.86, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced 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). The business had revenue of $677.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $673.56 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 305.15%. Verisk Analytics’s revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.43 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm 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 represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.05%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 21st that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the business services provider to purchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership 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.