Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC Has $1.79 Million Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 8.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,483 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 579 shares during the quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,787,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted 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 valued at $1,777,279,000 after acquiring an additional 392,945 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 21.4% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,195,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $282,418,000 after purchasing an additional 211,032 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 182,631 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 131.2% during the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 312,569 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $73,841,000 after purchasing an additional 177,391 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in 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 buying an additional 166,656 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other news, 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 value of $1,510,461.86. Following the sale, 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 filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of Verisk Analytics 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,829,348.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on VRSK shares. Bank of America lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target 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 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $252.00.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.5 %

VRSK traded down $1.18 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $221.07. The stock had a trading volume of 361,722 shares, compared to its average volume of 867,898. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $234.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $236.93. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $31.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.78. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $187.86 and a 1-year high of $251.98.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $677.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $673.56 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.43 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 0.71%. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.05%.

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.