Greenleaf Trust Trims Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Greenleaf Trust lowered its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 8,984 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 234 shares during the quarter. Greenleaf Trust’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $2,146,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. RIA Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $261,000. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 17.3% in the fourth quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,800 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $430,000 after acquiring an additional 265 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 10.9% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 346,646 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $82,800,000 after acquiring an additional 34,077 shares in the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 64.7% during the 4th quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 359 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $86,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares during the period. Finally, Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 142,565 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $34,053,000 after purchasing an additional 5,322 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on VRSK shares. Bank of America downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective 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 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,528,824.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at $11,528,824.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ VRSK traded down $0.81 during trading on Friday, hitting $222.52. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 714,317 shares, compared to its average volume of 927,408. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $235.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $237.16. The company has a market cap of $31.76 billion, a PE ratio of 52.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.78. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $187.86 and a fifty-two week high of $251.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued 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). The firm had revenue of $677.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $673.56 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 305.15% and a net margin of 22.92%. The business’s revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.43 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.39 dividend. 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 boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 37.05%.

Verisk Analytics declared 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 purchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is 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.