Sentry Investment Management LLC Trims Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Sentry Investment Management LLC reduced its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 9.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 750 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 81 shares during the period. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $179,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position 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 worth $1,777,279,000 after purchasing an additional 392,945 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.8% in the third 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. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1.3% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,821,265 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $731,736,000 after acquiring an additional 49,928 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 248.2% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,765,708 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $664,346,000 after acquiring an additional 2,684,234 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1,404.8% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,992,727 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $470,762,000 after acquiring an additional 1,860,298 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VRSK. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target 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 issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $252.00.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.0 %

VRSK opened at $222.10 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.70 billion, a PE ratio of 52.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $187.86 and a one year high of $251.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $236.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $237.46.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $677.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $673.56 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 305.15%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.43 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. This is a boost 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 is 37.05%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan 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 repurchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In related news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following 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 can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of Verisk Analytics 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 7,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.