New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 12,531 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

New York State Common Retirement Fund cut its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 7.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 150,877 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 12,531 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.10% of Verisk Analytics worth $36,038,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 150 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the period. NewSquare Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter worth about $39,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 506.5% during the 3rd quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 188 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares during the period. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter worth about $50,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America cut 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $252.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,852,407.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total transaction of $375,619.75. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 50,208 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,514,344. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider now owns 7,796 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,852,407.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952 in the last 90 days. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK opened at $222.79 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $233.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $236.73. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $187.86 and a fifty-two week high of $251.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.80 billion, a PE ratio of 52.92, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.44 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $677.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $673.56 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 305.15% and a net margin of 22.92%. The company’s revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.43 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

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

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

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.